(4 minutes read)
· South African Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni said that he would not use funds from the National Revenue Fund for emergency funding to implement the business rescue plan of South African Airways
· In his affidavit opposing the application filed by the opposition party-DA, Mboweni says the DA’s urgent application stems from a false premise that he has authorized the use of funds from the Fund (National Revenue Fund) to finance the implementation of the business rescue plan for the airline
· DA’s finance spokesperson, Geordin Hill-Lewis, said the party welcomed Mboweni’s affidavit. Based on Mboweni’s affidavit, the DA has removed its application from the urgent court roll
· However, it has retained the application on the normal court roll, should the need arise in future to prevent the finance minister from using section 16 of the PFMA to fund SAA.
South African Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni said that he would not use funds from the National Revenue Fund for emergency funding to implement the business rescue plan of South African Airways, since he was not authorized to do so. However, he did not rule out the possibility of tapping pension funds and other institutional sources for funding the rescue operations of SAA. However, he said that no such decision was taken so far.
This deposition is contained in an affidavit the minister has filed in response to an urgent application the emocratic Alliance intended to bring in the High Court in Pretoria to prevent section 16 of the Public Finance Management Act from being used for “emergency” funding for SAA.
In his affidavit opposing the application filed by the opposition party-DA, Mboweni says the DA’s urgent application stems from a false premise that he has authorized the use of funds from the Fund (National Revenue Fund) to finance the implementation of the business rescue plan for the airline. He points out that a letter indicating commitment he and industry minister Gordhan supplied to the rescue practitioners on July 15 has indicated that the government acknowledged the funding requirements set out in the rescue plan and that it is committed to “mobilizing” funding without mentioning the modalities of sourcing such funds. .
In a statement the DA’s finance spokesperson, Geordin Hill-Lewis, said the party welcomed Mboweni’s affidavit. Based on Mboweni’s affidavit, the DA has removed its application from the urgent court roll. However, the party says it has retained the application on the normal court roll, should the need arise in future to prevent the finance minister from using section 16 of the PFMA to fund SAA.
