South Africa’s department of public enterprises said on Friday it was sympathetic to the plight of South African Airways (SAA) employees who have not received salaries for several months and urged them to be patient while it worked to find a solution. The financially struggling state-owned national carrier has been under business rescue since December last year and in October Finance Minister Tito Mboweni allocated R10.5-billion in his medium term budget policy statement towards funding its rescue plan.