The South African government has concluded and signed a sale deal of 51% of South African Airways with its preferred strategic equity partner, the Takatso Consortium.
“The next step involves the approval of this transaction by various regulatory bodies,” it said part of a statement by the Ministry.
Takatso is a joint venture between asset fund manager Harith General Partners, the majority shareholder in the SAA transaction, and ACMI specialist Global Aviation Operations. “The Takatso deal is progressing well,” the DPE spokesman confirmed.
The government will pump another 1.8 billion rand into SAA during 2022/2023 despite the carrier continuing to rack up losses since resuming operations on September 1 last year.
The latest injection of funds represents the balance of 16.4 billion rand set aside for SAA in the 2020 Budget Review to settle state‐guaranteed debt and interest costs.
“To date, Government has paid 14.6 billion rand of this amount, with the remaining 1.8 billion to be paid in 2022/23,” according to the government’s 2022 Budget Review tabled on February 23.
Further state support of 3.5 billion rand is required over the next three years to implement the business rescue plan – as outlined in an interim business plan in June 2021.
“Government will honour its commitment to implement the SAA business rescue plan,” a DPE spokesman told said.
SAA intends to introduce long‐haul routes in the second half of 2022. The flag carrier resumed limited commercial operations in September 2021 in line with plans for a conservative re-entry into domestic and regional markets following a protracted business rescue process started on December 5, 2019, following years of continuous losses.
Delivering his 2022 Budget Speech in Parliament on February 23, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana did not mention any allocation to SAA but warned of “tough love” for state-owned companies going forward. He said the future of state-owned companies was under review by a Presidential State-Owned Enterprises Council.