WEDNESDAY, 11.00AM
The initial share in SA Airways to be sold to an equity partner is likely to be 49%, Transport Minister Mac Maharaj said yesterday, up from the 25% first proposed. Maharaj also added that full privatisation is on the cards at a later stage.
Maharaj said government is about to present its vision of Transnet’s future to the parastatal’s restructuring committee to facilitate acceleration of talks with management and labour on the restructuring of Transnet subsidiaries, particularly the lossmakers such as PX and SAA.
Maharaj said the law that a foreign firm could not own more than 25% of a local airline had been relaxed in the case of Sun Air and he saw no reason why the same could not be done for SAA. He added that, as the national carrier and a valuable national asset, SAA presented a different case, but the issue of SAA being overtaken by the growing globalisation of international airline also had to be considered.
He added that government’s longer-term plans still involve a 100% sell-off of SAA, with the possibility that the remaining 51% be listed, but these proposals are still subject to negotiations with labour.
Maharaj said government will decide soon how to deal with Transnet’s huge pension fund deficit, which will allow SAA’s restructuring talks to be speeded up.