An Open Letter To all SAA Creditors and Lenders: Reject the SAA Business Rescue Plan
12 July 2020
The business plan as proposed by Les Matuson and Siviwe Dongwana, the Business Rescue Practitioners (BRPs) appointed to deal with the South African Airways (SAA) business rescue raises a number of moral, ethical and financial issues in general, but particularly with regard the situation faced by SAA in view of the challenges faced by the country as a result of the demands made by Covid-19.
It is with this in mind the we present this open letter to you to urge you to reject the Business Rescue Plan that has been proposed by the BRPs appointed to deal with the SAA business rescue.
It is common cause that SAA has been mismanaged for a decade or more. The entity has been insolvent and bankrupt for all practical purposes for at least the past five years and has only achieved a “Going Concern” status year after year, on the back of R36.9 billion in taxpayer cash bailouts together with government guarantees of R19.1 billion.
Despite this unsupportable state of affairs, which all creditors and lenders have been acutely aware, many have continued to extend credit facilities to SAA without any security. This was presumably done on the basis of an assurance of receipt of payment, courtesy of unending taxpayer bailouts and government guarantees.