SAA’s R5.6bn loss in parliamentary spotlight
SAA’s financial loss of R5.6billion in two years will be in the spotlight when its bosses appear in Parliament this week.
The national carrier has been struggling in the past few years, and it only recently got a new board after being approved by the Cabinet.
The National Treasury has been saying the airline needed a strong board to turn it around.
But concerns have been raised in Parliament about the losses incurred by the airline in the past two years.
For that period the airline did not submit audited financial statements to Parliament as it needed a guarantee of R5 billion to continue as a going concern.
The Treasury would not approve the guarantee until there was a new board.
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan had called for the new board with the right skills and qualifications.
SAA will have to report to MPs on progress made in the past few months since the new board was appointed.
The national airline was also told by MPs in September that it would have to fill key posts.
It confirmed to MPs that some of the people in management were either suspended or had left.
The Treasury said in its mediumterm budget policy statement that it had given SAA guarantees totalling R19 billion in the past few years.
But the Treasury has called for state-owned entities to improve their financial performance and stop going to the government cap in hand.
Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa told the National Council of Provinces last week that the government was jacking up the performance of state-owned entities. He said of the 720 state-owned entities in the country, not all were struggling with their financial performance.
Ramaphosa is heading an interministerial committee that is looking into the review of state-owned entities.
Ramaphosa said while some were performing well, others were not.
He said progress was being made to get those in trouble out of the woods.
President Jacob Zuma will chair the new presidential state-owned entities co-ordinating council to look at improving their performance.
Zuma has denied the council was taking over the responsibility of Ramaphosa’s committee on the review of the entities.
He said there were clearly defined roles of what his deputy was doing, and the work of the presidential co-ordinating council.
Ramaphosa said the Cabinet had put in place measures to get stateowned entities right.
They were being monitored on a continuous basis to ensure they fulfilled their role of contributing to the economy.