Question NW2987 to the Minister of Finance
06 December 2017 - NW2987
Lees, Mr RA to ask the Minister of Finance
(1)Have any members of the (a) SA Airways (SAA) (i) board of directors and/or (ii) management and/or (b) National Treasury engaged in any correspondence with any persons associated with the Public Investment Corporation and/or the Government Employees’ Pension Fund on matters relating to SAA during the six months ending on 30 September 2017; if so, what are the details of each piece of correspondence in terms of the (aa) dates of each piece of correspondence, (bb) names of the persons (aaa) sending, (bbb) receiving and (ccc) copied into the correspondence and (cc) purpose and contents of each piece of correspondence; (2) whether he will furnish Mr R A Lees with copies of each piece of correspondence; if not, why not; if so, by what date?
Reply:
1. Yes, members of the SA Airways (SAA) board and management did engage in correspondence with the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) during the six months ending 30 September 2017. The first correspondence between SAA and PIC was on 7 March 2017 where SAA requested a meeting with representatives of PIC Management. Thereafter, various correspondence were sent between SAA and PIC management dealing, inter alia, with the signing of non-disclosure agreements between SAA and PIC for the PIC to access information during the due diligence process. During the due diligence process there were also correspondence on matters such as risk management, financial management, environmental, social and governance matters (ESG matters), etc, between SAA and the respective PIC teams.
2. In line with its standard practices and procedures, the PIC and SAA entered into a non-disclosure agreement and therefore copies of the correspondence between SAA and PIC, cannot be made available.