Public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan downplayed the resignation of Gidon Novick from the board of Takatso consortium, the strategic equity partner acquiring 51% of the government’s shareholding in SAA.
Novick, who is also the co-founder of airline LIFT, resigned on Monday citing in the main not having access to information about the SAA-Takatso deal.
The deal has been shrouded in secrecy and not even the National Treasury, parliament or the auditor-general have information about how the transaction was concluded and at what price.
Gordhan told parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) on Tuesday that the resignation wouldn’t affect the deal and what Novick says shouldn’t be taken “extremely seriously”.
“Mr Novick was a small and a relatively minor partner in the consortium. Let’s not overplay whatever he has to say. That’s all I’m going to say,” he said on Tuesday. “Just because he happens to be somebody who has experience somewhere in his past, as we all do in one respect or another, doesn’t discredit everybody else, nor does it mean that what he has to put on the table is something that one has to necessarily take extremely seriously.
Gordhan said he found it intriguing that Novick resigned from the Takatso board but not as a shareholder. “It’s like having your cake and eating it. You make your own judgment about that,” he told MPs. “But if you are serious about this thing not being a viable proposition and having all the ‘questions and doubts’ about some of the issues that he is raising, why be part of something ... and I go back to my first comment that this is a very competitive industry, one in which one wouldn’t mind to have the other for lunch,” he said.
Gordhan said his department has been talking to majority partner in the consortium and it’s up to the majority partner to inform its other partners or advisers.
“If you look at both statements of the past 24 hours, there is a sense of relief as well because there was a potential conflict of interest developing, in the sense that if there was SAA information put in the same pot from which the other airline was also feeding off, the Chinese wall between them would disappear and that would create its own dynamics.
“They’ve got to sort out their problems as far as I’m concerned. We are quite confident that left to the normal processes, this will ultimately be a successful transaction,” he said.
In a statement on Monday, Takatso said it appreciated Novick’s resignation from its board and deemed it appropriate in the circumstances given his and LIFT’s “inherent conflicts of interest” in relation to the SAA transaction.
It said Takatso is pursuing the SAA transaction’s merger clearance by the competition authorities and seeks to comply with the relevant legislation at all times.
It said LIFT was a competitor to SAA and the Takatso board had identified the potential conflicts of interest between the consortium and LIFT and had sought to manage these throughout the course of the transaction.
“This includes the establishment of appropriate confidentiality and information management regimes in the spirit of maintaining fair competition in the South African airline market and in compliance with South Africa’s competition regulations.
“As stated by Mr Novick, LIFT has (independent of Takatso) pursued business relationships with SAA outside the Takatso-SAA transaction and competition processes, thereby heightening the requirement for Takatso to maintain internal confidentiality over information relating to SAA and the SAA transaction.”
Takatso said Novick’s resignation will therefore assist the company in managing these inherent conflicts of interest and maintaining confidentiality over sensitive information.
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