State assets to fund SAA bail-out
Telkom shares are frontrunner for quick money as finance minister reveals disposal initiative in letter to speaker
The government is identifying state assets it can sell to offset its recent R2.2bn bail-out for South African Airways (SAA) and so ensure the cash injection has no effect on the 2017-18 budget. But for the bail-out to be budget neutral in the current financial year as Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba has promised, the sale will have to be fairly quick and suggestions are that the quickest would be for the government to dispose of all or part of its 39.7% stake in Telkom, which is worth about R14bn. DA deputy finance spokesman Alf Lees said the Telkom shares were "fairly easily marketable" and their sale would generate funds fairly quickly to meet the commitment to the budget neutrality of the bail-out. Gigaba disclosed the initiative to identify disposable state-owned assets in a letter to Speaker of the National Assembly Baleka Mbete, in which he explained the circumstances behind the Treasury having to repay the R2.2bn which SAA owed to Standard Chartered Bank after the bank refused...
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