The latest information provided to the Standing Committee on Finance (SCOF) by the South African Airways (SAA) board reveals a staggering loss of R4.5 billion for 2016/17.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) said in a statement that this figure is higher than the R3.5bn revealed 10 days ago and the estimated R1.7bn in September 2016. This could increase as there was a full month of figures left to be reported on, the DA said.

In a group income statement, SAA said that in the 11-month period the company had posted a loss of R4.49bn.

Commenting on the latest figures, the DA said: “This is an increase of R1bn in the space of ten days and an increase of R2.8bn in the space of six months.”

The DA is set to interrogate the expected loss figures provided to the Standing Committee on Finance by SAA when SAA appears before the Standing Committee on Finance on March 29.