The low-cost state-owned airline’s sale was botched, according to the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), putting the livelihoods of its members at jeopardy. Pravin Gordhan, the retiring minister of public enterprises, and his department are accused of this.
In September 2023, the North Gauteng High Court acting judge Moses Phooko issued an order for the minister to consider business rescue practitioner (BRP) Sipho Sono’s plea to sell Mango under the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA). Gordhan has requested special leave to challenge this verdict.
According to the PFMA, a state entity’s accounting authority must apply to the Minister of Public Enterprises for approval before selling any sizable portion of its shares.
Numsa claims that Gordhan was tardy in submitting his Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) petition to overturn Acting Judge Phooka’s ruling, which ruled that Gordhan’s inaction was illegal and unconstitutional and ordered him to decide within 30 days.
Gordhan clarified that his late submission of his SCA application did not amount to a willful disobedience of its regulations.
According to the union’s documents, among other things, the suspension of the high court’s order directly impacts the members of Numsa who were previously employed by Mango. This right to preferential reemployment only becomes vested in the event that Mango is acquired by an outside investor.
“In the circumstances where the court a quo correctly found that the Minister of Public Enterprises’ failure to determine section 54(2) application (of the PFMA) was unlawful, this means that the suspension of the court a quo’s order will leave Numsa’s members unemployed and with little hope of securing further employment,” Numsa explained.
“To prevent the BRP and Mango from relying on section 54(2) of the PFMA deeming provision, as directed by the court a quo, the Minister of Public Enterprises has once again failed to determine the section 54(2) application and fortuitously seeks to rely on his legal representative’s misunderstanding of the SCA rules,” they said. We cannot allow this to continue.
Gordhan requests a stay of Acting Judge Phooko’s order and decision while his special application (petition) before the SCA is considered.
Furthermore, until his SCA appeal is resolved, he requests that Mango and Sono be prohibited from selling and/or completing the investor process with SA Airways.
Additionally, until the SCA appeal procedure is concluded, he wants SAA to be prohibited from selling and/or completing the investor process with Mango and Sono.
Gordhan has been delaying the approval of Mango’s sale for over a year. He has told Sono that only SAA has the authority and responsibility to submit and oversee the sale of its subsidiary, that the section 54(2) application was incomplete, and that he needs more information before he can make a decision.
Judge Soraya Hassim ordered the parties involved in the case to file their reply affidavits with the SCA on February 27, after they had agreed to withdraw it from the urgent high court roll.
Gordhan needs to submit a follow-up affidavit by March 28 in order to re-open the case for the week of April 2.
Mango and Sono were instructed to promise not to sign any contracts for the sale of SAA’s low-cost airline shares before April 5.
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