The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) has welcomed the decision of the National Assembly’s portfolio committee on public enterprises to refer the botched SAA-Takatso consortium deal to the Special Investigating (SIU).

The union stated that the deal was corrupted from the beginning, and there have been attempts to sweep it under the carpet.

However, the involvement of the SIU will shed light on many underhand dealings in the sale of SAA to Takatso, said Numsa spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola.

She said Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan must be held accountable for what went on at SAA. She said Gordhan had tried for months to keep the deal secret and the fact that the sale of SAA was undervalued.

“The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) welcomes the decision of the Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises, to refer the Takatso deal to the Minister of Police so that the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) can investigate it further.

“The committee’s job is to play an oversight role on the Department of Public Enterprises, and it found that Minister Pravin Gordhan failed to conduct himself in an open, honest and transparent manner, with regards to the transaction. The minister attempted to bully the committee into keeping the deal a secret, even though there was absolutely no justification in doing so,” said Hlubi-Majola.

Hlubi-Majola continued: “SAA is a State Owned Entity, and every aspect of the deal must be open to the public to scrutinise. Gordhan did not follow proper processes when appointing Takatso as the preferred equity partner for SAA. Numsa is vindicated by this decision because we consistently opposed the deal from the beginning and we raised the alarm early on to say the process was corrupted and therefore, the deal was tainted,”

She said the Rand Merchant Bank, which was appointed as a transaction adviser, pulled out of the process early and at the time Takatso was not one of the companies shortlisted to be a strategic equity partner for SAA.

This is one of many issues that show that the process was not above board.

Numsa was also concerned about the future of the airline given that there was no certainty after the collapsed deal.

siyabonga.mkhwanazi@iol.co.za

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