BL Premium reports that the government, backed by the ANC, has chosen to restructure SAA and retain it as a national airline.  

Briefing the media on the outcome of the ANC’s national executive committee lekgotla on Wednesday, Enoch Godongwana, the chair of the party’s economic transformation committee, said it had been agreed that SAA be retained in a restructured form that would make it sustainable going forward.  This represents the most decisive step taken in the business rescue process so far and was decided upon on the basis of three options offered by the business rescue practitioners.  The other two options were to liquidate the SAA group, or to close the SAA company and retain Mango.  Government officials close to the process confirmed that there was consensus on the preferred option.  The ANC has not specified whether restructuring would mean a bailout, but has asked the government to look into what it would entail.  SAA has been in business rescue since December after several years of heavy losses that have necessitated perpetual bailouts from the state.  The ANC’s decision will in all likelihood mean that apart from R4bn required to fund the business rescue, SAA will require further funding to set it on a sustainable footing.  While the government had undertaken to arrange the R4bn, only R2bn of that — which was lent by a consortium of domestic banks — has flowed.  The second R2bn, which the Treasury had undertaken to provide, has not yet been secured due to legal constraints.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Carol Paton at BusinessLive (paywall access only)
• Read too, ANC adamant SAA should remain a state entity, at BusinessLive

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