Equating roughly to around R1 billion, Parliament’s
Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) heard that the ongoing battle to
repatriate the funds, largely from ticket sales, was continuing.
It’s prompted SCOPA chairperson Songezo Zibi to question
whether it isn’t time to attach assets in South Africa for the trapped money.
Zimbabwe has been facing a foreign exchange crunch since
2016, leaving several other airlines in the same predicament.
SAA said while it was liquid at present, it would need a
cash injection to expand its operations in the future.
Board chairperson, Derek Hanekom, said that the legacy debt
issue with Zimbabwe persisted, money that could be used for this purpose.
"We've been in serious contact with the Zimbabwean
government. R1.1 billion is not a small amount of money and it's not been
easy."
SAA chief financial officer, Lindsay Olitzski, said an
agreement had been reached for $9 million to remain in Zimbabwe for SAA's local
use.
"The remaining $50 million they indicated a payment
plan at an amount of $1 million per quarter. Now that is a very long payment
plan, that to date, we have not yet received funds."
Transport Minister Barbara Creecy said she would consider
whether to take the matter up on a diplomatic level once she received a full
report from the airline. Eyewitness News
0 comments:
Post a Comment