BusinessLive reports that Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba and the board of the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) were due to hold a crunch meeting on Tuesday to deal with reports that the government was planning to raid the fund manager to bail out struggling companies under its control.
The meeting was intended to deal with what Gigaba called "untrue, malicious and unconstructive" reports alleging that the Treasury was aiming to raid the pensions of public servants for at least R100bn to bail out struggling state-owned entities (SOEs). Bloomberg reported that the Treasury wanted R100bn. "No formal or informal request has been sent to the PIC for such funds," Gigaba said. He has less than a month to find the R15bn that is desperately needed for airlines SAA and SA Express and the national broadcaster SABC. The finance minister has also said Eskom needed "soft support", while other SOEs are known to need billions of rands to keep operating.
- A short report is at BusinessLive
- See too, Treasury refutes claims it made R100bn pensions request, at Moneyweb
- And also, Gigaba warned over 'raid on PIC billions', at IOL News
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page