By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Public Enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan has appointed a new eight-member interim board for the national carrier SAA with former tourism minister Derek Hanekom taking post of interim non-executive director and chairperson.
“[Hanekom’s] experience in fostering collaboration between government and private sectors will be invaluable in guiding SAA through its restructuring and revitalisation,” says Gordhan.
The new interim non-executive directors include Fathima Gany, a chartered accountant; Fundi Sithebi, a former COO of the Airports Company SA; Mahlubi Mazwi, a finance specialist; Johannes Weapond, a corporate lawyer; Clarissa Appana, a chartered accountant and finance expert; and Dumisani Sangweni, an economist.
“This distinguished and diverse team boasts expertise across various fields, including aviation, chartered accounting, corporate financial management, legal, human resources, economics, public policy, investment, and transactions, added Gordhan.”
The interim board will serve until the airline’s chosen strategic equity partner, the Takatso Consortium, becomes involved.
Takatso has made it clear that it will not take up the agreed 51% stake in SAA until all historic debt of the airline has been settled.
Despite SAA getting R1 billion in the 2023 budget to settle historic debt, the DPE estimated about another R2.5 billion was needed for that purpose.
The allocation of R1 billion was a portion of the initial R3.5 billion that was required by SAA to pay off all debts that the Business Rescue practitioners had segregated into a Receivership.
However, that figure was reduced and total balance from National Treasury was brought down to R2.5 billion.