A majority black-owned consortium of Global Airways and Harith, to be known as Takatso, is to take a 51% share of SAA as a ‘strategic equity partner’ with the government, which is reducing its share to 41%.
The announcement that the deal had been approved by the Cabinet was made by public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan yesterday, according to Fin24.
The report says Takatso – which means ‘aspire’ in Xhosa – will put in an initial R3 billion.
Gordhan was quoted as saying: ‘Government and the ANC [have] indicated over some time the intention to restructure SAA. The airline was placed into business rescue in December 2019 and since then our objective has been to ensure a viable and competitive airline and once launched, not reliant on the fiscus.’
The consortium is headed by CEO Gidon Novick, the former co-CEO of Comair, and the man who led the recent launch of Global’s airline, LIFT, in South Africa.
The consortium chair is Tshepo Mahloele, co-founder of Harith, which owns Lanseria International Airport.
Mahloele is quoted as saying that ‘Harith … has significant experience in the transport infrastructure and aviation sectors. We have deployed more than a billion dollars into a portfolio of critical infrastructure assets across the African continent that support regional economies’.
The consortium said it wanted to list the airline in the future ‘as one way of addressing future funding requirements and to enable all South Africans to take part in its success’.