A freeze has been put on the unilateral sale of assets of beleaguered South African Airways (SAA) unitl 30 June in terms of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) and airline’s business rescue practitioners (BRPs).
In terms of the agreement, the parties commit to a ‘defined interim period’ where the DPE will be given an opportunity to formulate proposals that will go into the final business rescue plan, either for a restructured SAA or the new airline.
The BRPs and the DPE have agreed that there will be ‘no sale of assets nor negotiations in this regard without consultation with and the involvement of the department’.
The two parties also agreed to work together in the development of the rescue plan, that the objective of the process should be a restructured new airline and that as many jobs as possible should be saved.
Three work streams will be established to meet the objectives. The financial work stream will be responsible for determining how much money is still available at SAA and what will be needed to ensure its continued operation until 30 June. An asset work stream will determine what assets will be needed in the new national carrier, and the labour work stream aims to streamline the retrenchment process initiated by the BRPs and the parallel compact that government and labour entered into.