Takatso Consortium announced as equity partner for SAA

The Takatso Consortium has been announced as the equity partner for South African Airways (SAA).

The public-private partnership will put 51% of the airline in the hands of the private sector.

The consortium says it aims to relaunch SAA as an iconic South African brand, which will seek to attract the best local talent.

The announcement was made by the Minister of Public Enterprises, Pravin Gordhan, on Friday morning.

Below is the live stream of that announcement:

The news comes as the members of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) at South African Airways Technical (SAAT), a subsidiary of SAA, gear up for demonstration outside the company’s offices at 11am.

“SAAT is in deep financial distress because SAA was placed under business rescue. Our members at SAAT are facing retrenchments and a section 189 process is under way, and to make matters worse, they have suffered for more than a year without full pay.  Our members are fed up and they will be picketing over the non-payment of salaries at SAAT,” says Numsa in a statement.

The workers are also demanding the immediate suspension of the HR General Manager, Vincent Matlala, for a number of allegations including misconduct and sexual harassment.