Question NW241 to the Minister of Public Enterprises

Share this page:

16 April 2021 - NW241

Profile picture: Zungula, Mr V

Zungula, Mr V to ask the Minister of Public Enterprises

(1)      Whether, given the state of affairs at SA Airways (SAA), he can account as to the reason that the voluntary severance package (VSP) payments of more than 3480 former SAA employees have not been paid, despite promises by his department to effect the payment by 31 January 2021; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details; (2) What plan does his department have in place to ensure that the rest of the 1220 SAA employees who were not subjected to the section 189 retrenchment process do not encounter a similar payment issue; (3) Whether, in light of the recorded R10,5 billion bail-out for SAA that the Minister of Finance, Mr T T Mboweni, had set out, of which R2,2 billion had been set aside to fund retrenchment packages, the specified funds have been made available to the Ministry of Public Enterprises; if not, why not; if so, what are the reasons that the specified funds have not reached the intended recipients; and (4) By what date will his department process the VSPs of all affected employees as a matter of urgency?

Reply:

  1. The VSPs have since been paid with non-management and management employees paid on 12 and 19 February 2021 respectively. The payments could not be paid until the funds had been secured and this was achieved with the adjusted national budget on 28 October 2020. Immediately R3.5 billion of these funds were made available to start payment of employee related liabilities.
  2. The Department does not anticipate that payment related to further restructuring including section 189 retrenchments shall be delayed. Funds necessary for this purpose have been deposited with BRPs.
  3. All the funds for retrenchment packages for SAA employees have been transferred to SAA.
  4. See (1) and (2) above.
     
     
     
     
     

Source file