Treasury urgently trying to secure SAA bailout: Mboweni

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni says National Treasury is working around the clock to try and secure SAA’s R2 billion bailout as soon as possible.

Speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland, Mboweni said it was important for the funding of SAA to happen in what he termed a fiscally neutral way.

He says: “Because we don’t have an Appropriations Bill that can find an additional R2 billion. That has to come from other sources that Director General Mogajana is working on but we have given our commitment that we will try to support SAA as much as we can and that we will work as much as we can to help.”

South African Airways has cancelled 28 local and 10 international flights.

The affected routes are return flights between Johannesburg to Cape Town as well as Johannesburg to Durban between January 20 – 24.

The cash-strapped SOE was placed under business rescue in December, requiring R4 billion to kick start the process, led by practitioner Les Matuson.