SAA saved from the brink of liquidation by a ‘commitment letter’

17 May 2018

The National Treasury Director General (DG), Dondo Mogajane, stated emphatically in parliament that the funding for SAA would not come from government or taxpayers.

However, the existence of a “commitment letter” has emerged which, according to the SAA CEO, Vuyani Jarana, contains a commitment by National Treasury to “inject capital”. This seems to indicate that government will provide the required funding of R 21,7 billion to SAA.

It has been reported that, it is through this “commitment letter to inject capital” provided by National Treasury to SAA, that has made it possible to persuade banks to lend SAA R 5,0 billion.

The “commitment letter” seems to constitute some sort of ‘guarantee of the guarantee’.

There is a question as to whether Cabinet is aware of the “commitment letter”, exactly what the contents of the letter are and what the implications for the national budget are?

We believe that the contents of the “commitment letter” could have massive implications for the budget and I will therefore submit a PAIA application to obtain a copy of the “commitment letter” that the SAA CEO refers to in his media comments.

Issued by Alf Lees, DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Finance, 17 May 2018