State arms manufacturer, Denel, has posted a profit of R390 million, before interest and taxes for the year ending March 2023. It revealed this at Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts on Wednesday.
Denel has experienced financial issues for several years and received billions of rands in state bailouts.
The state-owned company has not produced a profit since 2016/17. Denel in August last year finally settled outstanding salaries, using R992-million from the Denel Medical Benefits Trust. In March this year, it received R1.8 billion in bailout funding from National Treasury and is using this to resume production.
Denel’s Acting CEO, Michael Kgobe says, “I think with the current board, we were able to refine the turnaround plan. We have submitted the turnaround plan to the shareholder in the Public Enterprises Department. It is on the back of that plan that we engaged with National Treasury for a recapitalisation of the business.”
Meanwhile, the Special Investigating Unit says it had a proclamation to investigate Denel on four matters that were related to state capture.
The Unit says it has finalised some cases and referred them to the NPA for prosecution. It says disciplinary proceedings were recommended in other cases.
For VR Laser it recommended civil litigation to recoup the amount of money involved.
