The possibility that the public service’s pension fund will be used to save SAA from its maladministration bankruptcy by involving the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) as a business partner is totally unacceptable and must be avoided at all costs said Adv. Anton Alberts, the FF Plus parliamentary spokesman on transport.
Adv. Alberts said it is heading in exactly the same direction where Transnet’s pension funds were stripped to save the entity from ruin and left thousands of Transnet pensioners in an appalling condition of poverty and misery.
Dondo Mogajane, Acting Director-General of the National Treasury, mentioned the possibility during a parliamentary portfolios meeting on finance. This follows Minister Malusi Gigaba’s statement that an SAA partner does not necessarily have to come from the private sector.
“The government wants to do exactly the same as what happened at Transnet. These statements must flash all red lights. It’s a joke and nothing more than stripping of assets on a huge scale.”
“The government has taken a huge asset like SAA into the abyss of mismanagement, and now wants to use its own workers’ money to throw into this seemingly bottomless pit, which had to be bailed out with billions of rands without success.”
“The FF Plus believes such a move will be reckless and illegal and has already talked with the lawyer who is willing to act independently to prevent these plans from being executed.”
“The government cannot be allowed to plunder this fund. The consequences will be tragic. An external private partner will have to be found to invest in SAA to get the airports company back on track,” said Adv. Alberts.
Read the original article in Afrikaans on Die Vryburger
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