Treasury to give SAA a guarantee to enable it to approach lenders

The Public Enterprises Department has confirmed reports that national treasury will soon give South African Airways (SAA) a guarantee to enable it to approach lenders to get two-billion-rand of what it describes as post commencement finance.

This will come ahead of the placement of the SAA on business rescue.

President Cyril Ramaphosa instructed the government to urgently implement the process of putting the struggling airline under business rescue.

SAA, which has not made a profit since 2011 and is dependent on government bailouts to remain solvent.

It suffered a crippling strike last month and was forced to cancel hundreds of flights and this pushed it to the brink of collapse.