Johnathan Paoli
Parliament has called out Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan for his refusal to hand over the share sale and purchase agreement for South African Airways (SAA).
Parliament’s portfolio committee on Wednesday sought to conclude an investigation of more than a year into allegations that the transaction had not been above board.
The committee was investigating allegations made by the former Director-General (DG) of the Department of Public Enterprises, Kgathatso Tlhakudi, in a petition to Parliament that the sale of SAA was orchestrated in an irregular manner by Gordhan to benefit a few privileged individuals who were favoured by the Minister.
The committee said that it believed the lack of transparency on the sale of SAA and the lack of documentary evidence created more doubt about whether the transaction was legitimate.
The outstanding documents requested from the Minister include the shortlist of selected entities from which the final determination was made; an evaluation report performed by the Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) and the share sale and purchase agreement.
Committee Chairperson Khaya Magaxa said the investigation was not an easy process, despite being patient to all affected parties in order to ensure an open and fair process.
EFF’s Omphile Maotwe called for an ad hoc committee to be set up for further investigations and said that the sale should be stopped until then.
“Say to the Speaker perhaps the Public Protector must also be involved and be asked to investigate the conduct of the minister himself,” Moatwe said.
DA’s Samantha Graham-Mare said that transparency was fundamental in any consideration of the matter.
“This is a public enterprise. It belongs to the people of this country and not to the minister,” Graham-Mare said.
MPs from the ruling party said that there was insufficient time before elections for a new committee to launch a probe and would request the Speaker to summon Gordhan to produce the documents instead.
Among allegations made by the former Director-General in his petition is that Gordhan brought the former CEO of AngloGold Ashanti and Vendanta, Srinivisan Venkatakrishana, as an “unpaid advisor” who initiated the impractical and costly route of complete closure of SAA instead of recapitalisation.
In addition, the DG alleges that Gordhan engaged in procurement processes and disposing of state assets and made a case for the appointment of RMB as transaction advisor, a company in which he has disclosed that he owns shares.
Tlhakudi said that RMB was appointed through a deviation from normal procurement processes because of Gordhan’s intervention.
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