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The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) has called on Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan not to appeal last week’s Pretoria High Court decision, which gave his department a month to decide the fate of the air carrier, Mango.
Mango, a wholly owned subsidiary of SA Airways, hasn't flown since July 2021.
Gordhan was first asked to approve its sale in September last year but had yet to decide by the time of the court judgment last week.
The high court gave public enterprises a month to decide the fate of the carrier after business rescue practitioner Sipho Sono and Numsa took government to court to get finality on the matter.
The court declared the minister's failure to decide unlawful and gave him 30 days to decide.
“The first respondent (Gordhan) is directed within 30 days after the service of the court order to take a decision in respect of the section 54 (2) application and communicate the outcome thereof to the applicants and the third respondent (SAA), including furnishing such reasons for the decision made, failing which the applicants and the third respondent (SAA) may assume that the section 54 (2) application has been approved by operation of section 54 (3) of the Public Finance Management Act’s (PFMA),” the judgment reads.
The ection 54 makes provision for automatic approval should the executive, in this case, Gordhan, fail to respond within the prescribed timeframe.
READ: Acsa does better as African aviation industry slowly recovers
This week, Gordhan came out guns blazing, saying he would not be bullied to act in a manner that would compromise the work of government.
Gordhan said he would duly apply the law and the requisite policies that govern the way he dispensed his oversight on state-owned companies (SOCs) as government shareholder representatives.
The minister insisted he would not be intimidated to submit to pressure that certain elements, with zero regard for public interest, sought to exert on him and the department regarding the business rescue process of Mango Airlines.
He said he was studying the judgment and he would proceed based on the legal advice he received on the matter.
Gordhan said:
Gordhan said he had requested information from the business rescue practitioner to enable him to decide on the PFMA section 54 (2) application.
He claimed to have requested a detailed business plan to assess the consortium's viability, as well as comprehensive due diligence and foreign ownership details to comply with South African laws.
“Despite several requests, I was not furnished with the requested information,” he said.
“While we respect the decision of the court, the department will ensure that we follow all the prescripts of the law in terms of how we execute our responsibility to put all our SOCs on a stable footing.”
Numsa's national spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola accused the minister of trying to sabotage Mango’s survival chances, saying:
Hlubi-Majola believes Gordhan wants Mango to collapse just as SA Express did.
“He must just back off so that this process could conclude. He must just not appeal this judgment like he did to all other judgments.”
City Press understands that according to the latest business rescue report, a consortium selected to buy Mango continues to keep its offer open.
The consortium, which has not yet been named, has been waiting since November for approval of Gordhan's deal in terms of the PFMA.
READ: Gordhan ‘violated’ laws and constitution
Sono turned to the court and claimed Gordhan wanted to see the business case of the chosen investor before deciding. He raised his concerns about sharing such information, as Mango was likely to compete with its parent company, state-owned SAA.
If the transaction fails, Mango will have to be grounded in terms of its business rescue plan.
