SAA guarantee an error of judgement

10 September 2016

The Democratic Alliance welcomes the conditions laid out for the Board of SAA by the Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan at his meeting with the new directors of SAA on the 9th of September 2016. 

However the decision to grant SAA an unspecified going concern guarentee, which is believed to be in the range on R5 billion and would bring the total guarantee liability to the State to R 20 billion, is a significant risk because the guarantee cannot be revoked should the board be unable or unwilling to fulfil the conditions.

The fact is that Dudu Myeni has wrecked SAA and the Cabinet decision to reappoint her as chairperson of the board was irrational. That is why the DA is preparing its case for the reviewing of this appointment. With Dudu Myeni’s mismanagement of SAA, as well as her apparent protection from President Jacob Zuma, there is a high risk that the board will fail to meet the conditions announced by the Finance Minister.  

There can be no illusion that the sensible thing to have done in order to give the new SAA board a fighting chance of saving SAA from total collapse would have been to remove Dudu Myeni from the board. 

The DA remains resolute that the additional state guarantee should not have been granted as long as Dudu Myeni remained a member of the board at SAA.

Statement issued by Alf Lees MP, DA Deputy Shadow Minister of Finance, 10 September 2016