By Loyiso Sidimba 
Mar 22, 2020
Siviwe Dongwana and Les Matuson initially advised employees and collectors they hoped to publish their plan by the tip of this month.
Nonetheless, on Friday, they acknowledged: “Given the early phases of Covid-19 and the measures applied by the Cupboard, the practitioners are of the view that this evaluation won’t, realistically, be finalised earlier than March 31, 2020.”
President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a Nationwide State of Catastrophe final Sunday following the outbreak of the possibly lethal illness.
Dongwana and Matuson need their completion date prolonged till Might 29, which they hope will permit for adequate time to find out the complete results of Covid-19 on SAA.
That is the third time the enterprise rescue practitioners have requested for an extension, after being granted extensions in December and final month.
The practitioners nonetheless have to have engagements with labour on the looming retrenchments on the airline by way of part 189 of the Labour Relations Act.
SAA began the facilitating the method of retrenching tons of of employees on Friday on the Fee for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, and hopes the method will finish on Might 8.
Final month, the Nationwide Union of Metalworkers of SA and the SA Cabin Crew Affiliation misplaced their Labour Courtroom bid to interdict and restrain SAA from retrenching employees.
Dongwana and Matuson have indicated that the impression of Covid-19 wouldn’t solely intensify the necessity for pressing cost-cutting measures to be thought of, resembling potential lay-offs and the introduction of quick time, however may adversely impression upon the present part 189 restructuring course of, and can be a matter for additional session with consultant commerce unions and different representatives.
“It’s fairly clear that SAA will expertise difficulties in finishing the plan with out having considerably concluded the part 189 course of with the consulting events,” they mentioned.
To finalise their plan, Dongwana and Matuson should additionally present a draft to committees and the shareholder, in addition to convene conferences to permit overseas collectors to attend.
“On the identical time, the ZAR (rand) has weakened considerably in opposition to main currencies, with detrimental results for SAA. Whereas beforehand SAA would have benefited from a weakened foreign money by means of elevated passenger income, that profit is eradicated beneath the present circumstances,” Dongwana and Matuson state of their request.
In response to the practitioners, SAA has numerous overseas collectors who won’t be able to journey to South Africa because of the measures put in place by the federal government to combat Covid-19.
The request by Dongwana and Matuson got here on the identical day SAA introduced that it was suspending all worldwide flights with fast impact till the tip of Might.
SAA mentioned there was a right away, drastic discount of demand for African regional flights as they weren’t commercially viable and that the suspension of the worldwide flights had resulted within the airline not having the ability to function its regular community.
Throughout this era, SAA won’t be flying to Accra in Ghana, Lusaka in Zambia, Harare and Victoria Falls, each in Zimbabwe, Windhoek in Namibia, Lagos in Nigeria, Entebbe in Uganda, and Mauritius. Nonetheless, the struggling airline will proceed to render companies on its home route between Johannesburg and Cape City.
Political Bureau
