Johannesburg - The jury is out on the financial health of SAA at the end of next month when its results will be released. This comes as SAA denies that it sub-leased 10 aircraft to Mango at a discounted price.
But the DA has called for an inquiry into the matter, saying it will determine who is telling the truth and what has happened.
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan is expected to table the annual report with audited financial statements of SAA in Parliament at the end of next month. This is after Gordhan asked for another extension from Speaker Baleka Mbete last month. The minister has been asking for the extensions since January.
In one of his requests to the Speaker, Gordhan said the issue of a R5 billion guarantee was still being considered.
SAA has asked for a guarantee to continue operating as a going concern.
Sub-leased aircraft
Its results are late by almost a year after other departments and state-owned entities (SOEs) tabled theirs in the National Assembly in September.
On Wednesday, outgoing Mango chief executive Nico Bezuidenhout denied earlier claims by SAA that it had sub-leased its aircraft to Mango at a significantly discounted price.
Bezuidenhout said the aircraft were leased at market-related prices. His interview with Bloomberg came on the backdrop of protests from opposition airlines that this was anti-competitive behaviour.
Hours later SAA retracted its weekend statement that it sub-leased the aircraft to Mango at a discount.
It said these aircraft were leased at market-related prices.
But the DA said it wanted the Competition Commission to investigate SAA’s claims.
DA MP Natasha Mazzone said they wanted a full-scale investigation into possible collusion, corruption and bribery between SAA and Mango.
Low-cost airline Skywise said it had long suspected that SAA was subsidising Mango in the domestic airline market.
Co-chairpersons of Skywise Airlines Tabassum Qadir and Javed Malik said this was done at the expense of other airlines.
“The fact has been denied through public statements by airline executive Nico Bezuidenhout at the World Route Conference held in September 2015,” they said.
“Now SAA has revealed it subsidised the start-up Mango by sub-leasing 10 aircraft at a significantly discounted price, while continuing to pay the market-related premium to the lessor,” the co-chairpersons said.
“Finally, the table seems to be turned, but on whose cost?”
Policy differences
Analysts warned this month of policy differences on the rationalisation of SOEs.
Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa is leading a team that is looking into the rationalisation of SOEs.
SA Express (SAX) told Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts in May that discussions on the merger between SAA, SAX and Mango were going well.
Inati Ntshanga, the chief executive of SAX, said they were hoping to conclude the merger discussions soon.
President Jacob Zuma announced in his State of the National address that SAA, SAX and Mango would be merged to cut costs.
The state-owned airlines have taken the hit for making losses at the expense of taxpayers.
Gordhan said in his Budget speech that the three companies had spent R467 billion in guarantees in the past decade-and-a-half.
BUSINESS REPORT