SAA business rescue practitioners want appeal heard urgently

South African Airways‘ business rescue practitioners want their appeal against a Labour Court order to be heard urgently.

Earlier this month, the Labour Court ordered that the retrenchment process by the administrators be halted, until they provide a proper business plan.

On Monday, the BRPs were granted leave to appeal the ruling, after arguing that another court might come to a different finding.

The ruling was a blow to the administrators who argued that the retrenchments are necessary to avoid the airline being liquidated.

SAA, which has not made a profit since 2011, has received bailouts of more than R20 billion over the past three years.

It is running low on cash after the coronavirus pandemic forced it to halt all commercial passenger flights.

Public Enterprises wants SA Express’ provisional liquidation resolved

Meanwhile, the Department of Public Enterprises says the process of provisional liquidation of the South African Express must be resolved as soon as possible for the benefit of workers who are not earning salaries.

Earlier, the employment contracts of the SA Express employees were suspended, paving the way for the beginning of the liquidation process.

Acting Director-General Kgathatso Tlhakudi says the lives of the many workers at the airline will remain uncertain until everything is sorted out.

“The future of SA Express needs to be decided very soon so that the situation that the workers find themselves in there can at least be brought to an end, so that they can start planning their future. And this is … obviously reliant on what sort of the airline industry is going to emerge after the lockdown period.”

“What we know from IATA and AKAU numbers is that literally around the world, the industry is getting disseminated, and that is what we know and the propensity to fly is not going to be recovered any time soon.”

In the video below, the Public Enterprise Department presents its annual performance plan and budget:

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Below is a SAA fact sheet: