Treasury defends use of National Revenue Fund for latest R3bn SAA bail-out
Treasury says its use of section 16 of the Public Finance Management Act in order to bail out South African Airways (SAA) with R3bn from the National Revenue Fund was legitimate.The use of the section has been questioned by DA deputy finance spokesperson Alf Lees, who says SAA’s need for funding was foreseen months beforehand and Treasury should therefore have used normal appropriation processes.The R3bn was required to repay Citibank for part of its R1.8bn loan that was not rolled over at the end of September, and to cover SAA’s working capital needs.Treasury advocate Empie van Schoor told Parliament’s finance committee on Thursday that the relevant section of the act stipulated that the National Revenue Fund could be used for payments of an exceptional nature, and where these could not be postponed to a future parliamentary appropriation of funds without serious prejudice to the public interest.She said the public interest aspect related to the danger that a default by SAA of its ...
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