DG Tlhakudi refuses to provide details of SAA/Takatso deal

31 March 2022

Note to Editors: Please find an attached soundbite by Alf Lees MP

The DA has written to Mkhuleko Hlengwa, the Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA), to request that Pravin Gordhan, the Minister of Public Enterprises, Enoch Godongwana, the Minister of Finance, and the respective Director Generals be called to appear before the portfolio committee in order to provide details and clarity on the agreement entered into with the Takatso consortium to take over 51% of the SAA shares.

Of importance must be to obtain clarity on whether or not National Treasury were excluded from participation in the process to identify Takatso as the chosen beneficiary as well as the terms and conditions contained in the agreement.

Not surprisingly Kgathatso Tlhakudi, the Director General of the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) has refused the PAIA application for a copy of the Takatso SAA deal (see letter here).

Tlhakudi claims that the information is commercially sensitive. This claim seems patently false as the details of the agreement to dispose of 51% of the SAA shares, a 100% owned State-Owned Entity, to the Takatso consortium must at some stage be reported to Parliament and cannot be kept a secret.

The refusal by DPE Director General, Kgathatso Tlhakudi, to provide a copy of the SAA/Takatso agreement is a clear delaying tactic to ensure that the SAA/Takatso deal is finalised before there is any opportunity for Parliament to exercise its oversight obligations.

Parliament must be given a copy of the SAA/Takatso agreement in order to ensure that the process followed to establish Takatso as the Strategic Equity Partner as well as that the terms and conditions contained in the agreement are in the best interests of all South Africans and not just a few ANC cadres.

The SAA/Takatso agreement was apparently entered into without any substantive participation of National Treasury despite National Treasury having concerns about some of the terms and conditions in the agreement already entered into between the DPE and Takatso.

Issued by Alf Lees, DA Member of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, 31 March 2022