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Parliament: Malusi Gigaba's R10bn plan to bail out SAA

24 Aug 2017

Government plans to sell its shares in profitable Telkom to raise R10bn to bail out debt-ridden SAA emerged in Parliament on Wednesday, just hours after public spending watchdog committee Scopa was told by the national airline that it was broke. DA MP Alf Lees told the House he had "in my possession a document, marked secret, saying Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba is planning to give SAA a R10bn bailout, primarily by selling government's shares in Telkom." It's the latest twist in the SAA saga of financial and governance turmoil.

Adrian Pingstone via Wikimedia Commons

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, who earlier in his Q&A in the House deftly sidestepped questions on State Capture and other prickly matters, clearly was flummoxed by the quietly spoken DA MP's question as to whether he approved of a bailout deal for SAA.

"If he has a document marked secret and you are not a member of the executive, you could be charged and go to prison," was Ramaphosa's initial response, possibly unaware of parliamentary privilege, but it was quickly back to deflection mode. "The issue that the Honourable Member is talking about is a matter we continue to discuss, issues of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and assets that...

Read the full story on the Daily Maverick website.

Source: allAfrica

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