'0% chance of SAA investors'

Risky as airline did not submit financial statements for auditing for 4 years, says experts.

- Ina Opperman

A Although Transport Minister Barbara Creecy told parliament this week that South African Airways (SAA) is now "debt-free", the troubled airline still needs cash and economists doubt anyone would loan it money in the absence of financial statements.

The auditor-general told the standing committee on public enterprises in February this year that SAA did not submit financial statements for auditing within the prescribed timeframes in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.

This week, board chair Derek Hanekom and chair of the audit, risk and governance committee Fathima Gany promised to table the documents by next year, saying that when they joined the SAA board 17 months ago, there was a serious backlog in the submission of audited financial statements.

They said they completed the 2022-23 financial statements and are waiting for the SAA annual meeting before it can be made public.

Creecy said SAA needs a capital injection| from an equity partner and assured MPs that the airline would not be privatised.