DA opposed to potential Barclays loan to SAA

The DA has condemned a potential loan by Barclays to the national carrier, SAA.

DA MP Alf Lees said the party would write to the group CEO of Barclays, Jes Staley, to implore his banking group not to supply short-term bridging finance to SAA at the apparent behest of Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan.

“The continued efforts by the government to fund this defunct state-owned entity at the expense of the South African public is morally reprehensible and should be opposed at all costs. The DA plans to do just that when Parliament votes on the budget in November.

“SAA has not been a viable business for many years and the DA has campaigned South African commercial banks since December 2018 to stop giving government-guaranteed loans to the airline or suffer reputational damage,” Lees said.

The DA MP said the airline had already received R27 billion from the Treasury this year during a time of a pandemic that has “left millions of people” unemployed and without any “money to put food on the table”.

“In a year when the Covid-19 pandemic exposed the deep socioeconomic fault lines still rife in the country, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni has reneged his promise to prioritise people over a dead duck that will realistically never fly again.

“Instead of funding the police, education, health or other vital sectors, the Treasury’s continued bailouts are bleeding the country dry.”

(Compiled by Makhosandile Zulu)

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