SAA’s business rescue practitioners declined to comment this morning on an announcement that a letter of support committing Government to funding the rescue of SAA was delivered to them yesterday.

In a statement this morning, the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) claimed that “a letter of support that commits the Government to mobilise funding for the short-, medium- and long-term requirements to create a viable and sustainable national airline was signed by the Ministers of Finance and Public Enterprises yesterday (July 15) and provided to SAA’s business rescue practitioners”.

However, Louise Brugman, Spokesperson for the BRPs, said they could not comment on the matter at this time.

The DPE statement welcomed “the commitment by National Treasury that the Government will support and source funding for a business rescue plan for SAA”.  

“In the rescue plan, it is projected that an amount of R10,1bn (€531,8M) will be required to fund the rescue plan, clean up and stabilise the balance sheet of SAA, restructure the rest of the Group entities that are not in business rescue, provide working capital for the rest of the group’s entities, and to create a stable and viable platform for a new restructured national airline. Different tranches of money will be required as different aspects of the restructuring takes effect,” the DPE said.

The letter was delivered in line with a deadline set by the business rescue plan, which was approved by a majority of creditors on July 14.