THE National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) is gatvol that the alleged corrupt deal between South African Airways (SAA) and the Takatso Consortium continues.
The union wrote to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) in April complaining that there were governance gaps in the deal. But there has been no response.
Its general secretary Irvin Jim said they want the "dodgy" deal scrapped because there was no accountability from the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE), and Parliament was failing to protect the national asset.
Jim said the deal has allegedly been engineered by Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan.
"We have not heard back from any of them. This delayed response leads us to wonder if there is any political will to hold Gordhan accountable for this dodgy deal," said Jim.
He also condemned the Competition Commission for recommending that the Competition Tribunal should approve the proposed merger between Takatso Aviation and SAA despite its glaring governance gaps.
Takatso intends to acquire a 51% stake in SAA for the merger to go ahead.
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"We have been saying that the SAA deal, which Gordhan engineered, stinks of corruption and we are disappointed that the Competition Commission has decided to legitimise a process which was illegitimate to begin with.
"We are raising the alarm once again on this dodgy deal because there is no accountability from the DPE and Parliament is failing to protect this national asset. Parliament has failed to hold Gordhan accountable for his actions," he said.
He said the public has a right to know who all the other potential bidders were, and why their bids were rejected, in favour of Takatso. He said before the business rescue, SAA was valued at R14 billion.
"We found out later that Takatso conducted its own valuation which valued the airline at R3 billion and this was confirmed by Derek Hanekom, the board chairman of the interim SAA board. Whereas we see nothing wrong with any potential buyer of an asset making its own valuation of the asset they want to buy. What is troubling is the fact that DPE has accepted the zero valuation of SAA by Takatso and is giving them the airline for free," he said.
Jim said SAA should have had external, independent parties conduct the valuation to get a real sense of the value of the state-owned airline.
"SAA was deliberately undervalued by Takatso. We suspect that Takatso will sell SAA’s assets in order to raise the capital it does not have, to fund the airline. It is in their interest to buy it very cheaply so that they do not have to pay the full value of the airline," he said.
