(4 minutes read)
· Close on the heels of the government committing to obtain the requisite R10.3 billion needed to restructure South African Airways (SAA), the opposition party -Democratic Alliance (DA) -says it will legally challenge the use of emergency public funds to do so.
· In a legal notice sent to Mboweni, the opposition party-DA- has asked that he (Mboweni) confirmed that he would not invoke Section 16 of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) to meet this expense
Now, the bail out of the beleaguered South African Airlines (SAA) is taking another twist. Close on the heels of the government committing to obtain the requisite R10.3 billion needed to restructure South African Airways (SAA), the opposition party -Democratic Alliance (DA) -says it will legally challenge the use of emergency public funds to do so.
The government under the aegis of Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan and Finance Minister Tito Mboweni signed a letter confirming that government will commit to mobilize funding for the short-, medium- and long-term requirements to create a viable and sustainable new South African national airline, as reported by www.trendsnafrica.com. The letter was addressed to the airline’s rescue practitioners.
In a legal notice sent to Mboweni, the opposition party-DA- has asked that he (Mboweni) confirmed that he would not invoke Section 16 of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) to meet this expense. Section 16 allows the finance minister to disburse state funds for an “exceptional nature which is currently not provided for and which
cannot, without serious prejudice to the public interest, be postponed to a future parliamentary appropriation of funds.” The DA says that the SAA case does not meet any of the provisions of section 16, as there is no emergency; there is nothing exceptional about the proposed expenditure; and postponing the funding will not seriously prejudice the public interest.
