COLLISION COURSE: Parliament summons SAA, demanding answers to deepening financial turmoil and turbulent governance

Transport Minister Barbara Creecy has called on SAA board chair Sedzani Mudau to account for the airline’s governance and financial issues.

The chairperson of Parliament’s standing committee on appropriations, Bosa leader Mmusi Maimane, told Daily Maverick on Monday, 26 October, that an “urgent committee meeting” was planned within days of the 4 November elections and SAA was expected to bring “properly crafted financial statements”.

This comes after internal SAA information reached the committee, raising serious concerns about “executive appointments and the accuracy of SAA’s financial position”, according to a 19 October letter sent by Maimane to Creecy.

The committee has asked whether employees’ concerns were addressed, and for details of SAA’s current financial situation, how the R1.1-billion proceeds from selling a Heathrow slot were used, and “any anticipated request for state support”.

The standing committee on appropriations oversees how public funds are allocated and spent, with a focus on appropriation Bills, but crucially also ensures fiscal accountability and transparency by monitoring spending patterns and investigating financial irregularities.

As Maimane put it, “We need to understand fully where the guarantees will end up.”

Delivering the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement last Wednesday, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said SAA had received a R1-billion guarantee in August for working capital requirements following “pressure on its operations and finances from the fuel price shock”.

Another R223-million in government guarantees relates to liabilities for unflown tickets – effectively refunds – and credits. The risks depended on SAA’s “ability to absorb these pressures and meet its operating and financing requirements without additional government support”.

SAA failed to submit its 2025/26 annual report as statutorily required by 30 September because the audit process was still under way.

“It is anticipated that the annual financial statements will be finalised and ready for tabling by the end of October 2026,” Creecy told Parliament in a letter dated 4 September and published in the Announcements, Tablings and Committee Reports.

Reduced flights

On Monday, Maimane said, “I fly [with] SAA a lot. If you look at the regularity of its flights, these have severely reduced.” 

This month, SAA staff are being paid in relays from 27 October to 30 October, according to the Sunday Times, which quoted a source saying this was the second such salary delay. “SAA is running out of money, and may soon be grounded,” said the source.

Evidence of SAA’s fragile financial standing also surfaced last year when the national carrier received a disclaimed audit opinion. In the airline’s annual report for the financial year ending 31 March 2025, the Auditor-General said the financial statements were submitted late and were not in the required format. On procurement, said the Auditor-General:

“I was unable to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence that all contracts and quotations were awarded in accordance with the legislative requirements due to poor record-keeping and inadequate procedures for maintaining comprehensive procurement and contract registers.”

SAA exited business rescue in May 2021, on the back of a 51% private equity partner deal with Takatso, after years of financial turmoil. Since 2017, the airline has received government bailouts of at least R15-billion, alongside an agreement by the government to pay another R9.2-billion in maturing debt.

However, the planned deal terminated in March 2024, when Takatso and the Department of Public Enterprises parted ways over a controversial revaluation of the flag carrier.

But for Maimane, the situation at SAA went beyond finances to the airline’s recent ructions in leadership.

In April, Group CEO Professor John Lamola resigned at short notice. Matshela Seshibe, the CEO of SAA’s subsidiary Air Chefs, was appointed acting chief executive amid a public commitment that “the process to recruit the permanent GCEO will commence shortly”. But he was put on special leave in August with immediate effect pending internal proceedings. DM