Pravin Gordhan details what liquidating SAA would have meant for employees

by Bongiwe Mati

Troubled national airline South African Airways has been a topic of discussion in parliament, in the media and the public in general for many years. This is due to the national carrier’s inability to sustain itself, often receiving bailouts worth billions from the government just to get by.

The airline, which is currently celebrating 90 years of existence, went through a business rescue process that resulted in thousands of employees losing their jobs.

SAA was in the process of a sale negotiation with Takatso consortium for a 51% stock sale, which, if the deal with Takatso had gone through, would have meant that the government would lose its majority shareholding.

Announcing the cancellation of the deal, Minister of Public Enterprise Pravin Gordhan started by detailing SAA’s woes which date a few years back. The airline was on the verge of liquidation, which would have affected the staff of almost 5000 employees back then.

Detailing the effects liquidation would have had, had it happened, the minister shared:

“Liquidation means all 4700 staff losing their jobs, and all of the assets of SAA would be sold in a fire sale. Workers at SAA, if then calculated would go home with something like R28 000 or R30 000 each, notwithstanding many of whom had served SAA for 20 or more years.”

Explaining the business rescue process, the government ended up choosing, he shared:

“So, from a state in late 2019, early 2020, we’ve been through the business rescue process, we’ve been through business rescue, we’ve been through the COID-19 pandemic, we’ve been through the period where aviation globally became virtually a standstill except for cargo moving around. Borders as you may recall were closed across the world, not just SA. ”

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