SAA ducks money matters

As taxpayers we have no clue whether the company is viable or not Duvenage.

- Hein Kaiser

South African Airways may be flying by the seat of its pants, but taxpayers will never know its money matters. And SAA is not telling - again.

Speculation is rife about yet another delay in the publication of the state-owned company's financials, despite National Treasury already hinting at a loss earlier this year when it reported a R150 million loss in the first three months of the financial period in question.

The Companies Act requires any company, whether state owned or private, to publish financial results within six months of the end of its financial year.

For SAA, that means D-day is on 30 September, less than two months away.

The airline stalled releasing annual reports from 2019 until 2022, finally tabling it in December last year. Cumulative losses for that period exceeded R23 billion. It blamed business rescue procedures and other challenges like the Covid pandemic.