ANC gives green light to government's efforts to find equity partner for SAA

The ANC NEC has expressed its approval for the government to seek private funding for a new airline to replace SAA — with the caveat that investors must understand its developmental role.

Secretary-general Ace Magashule said this while announcing the outcomes of this past weekend’s NEC meeting on Wednesday, adding that the government would have to remain the majority shareholder in such an arrangement.

“On private equity at SAA, we are saying government must have majority shares. We are equally calling for our own development finance institutions to participate if possible, wherever they see an opportunity,” he said.

“We can’t choose for government, as the ANC. There is government with ministers who are our deployees and we have confidence in them. Whoever they see as the right partner, that partner will come in for as long as government and those entities have an understanding of playing a developmental role.

“When these institutions were established, there was this part of a developmental role, be that SAA or Eskom, because we still want to fly the South African flag.”

Finance minister Tito Mboweni announced in his supplementary budget last week that a process of rationalisation for government ownership in state-owned companies was set to get under way.

This process would be looking at which SOEs the government should keep and which should be given the chop.