The Free Market Foundation (FMF) announced on Wednesday that it is seeking information on the financial situations of both State-owned airlines, South African Airways (SAA) and SA Express (SAX), by means of Promotion of Access to Information Act applications. This follows the resignation of SAA CEO Vuyani Jarana, which became public knowledge earlier in the week.
“[I]t is [now] even more urgent that financial accounts for SAA, low cost subsidiary Mango and SAX are subject to public scrutiny before any more government and bank bailouts are made,” stated the FMF in its press release. It pointed out that SAA had not issued any audited financial statements since March 31, 2017 (when it revealed a loss of R5.4-billion), while SAX’s last audited financial statements were released in March 2016.
SAA did inform Parliament last year that it had made a loss of R5.6-billion in the 2017/2018 financial year. And a Treasury report to Parliament in late November said that SAX was technically insolvent, with liabilities exceeding assets. SAX itself has reported that it expected to make a loss in the 2018/2019 financial year of R669-million.