SAA is receiving conflicting orders from Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and President Jacob Zuma, which is what is hindering the unprofitable state-owned airline from making a full recovery, acting chief executive Musa Zwane has stated.
The carrier needed firm decisions on whether SAA should be privatised, how it should be capitalised, the make-up of a new board and a new chief, Zwane said. Zwane is attempting to restructure SAA’s debt to reduce the interest rate charged on loans to less than 6% from an average of 8%, he said.
Treasury director-general Lungisa Fuzile said on Friday on CNBC Africa that South Africa would decide by the end of this year which state-owned companies would be privatised or closed as the government cut spending amid slow economic growth.
“I can say without fear of contradiction, before the end of this year, it will be possible to go beyond just the technical analysis and reporting and begin now to point at which entities have got to fold and which ones must be merged,” Fuzile said.
Zwane said SAA had met a R1.1 billion annual cost-reduction target.
SAA hasn’t made a profit since 2011.