National carrier South African Airways might be operational, but it and its subsidiaries were unable to move forward with its growth plan without financing, according to the Chairperson of Parliaments Standing Committee on Public Accounts Scopa, Songezo Zibi .
He was reacting to a briefing from the Auditor-Generals office on SAAs finances. The AGs office briefed the committee on audits up until the financial year ending in March 2022. SAAs 2022/23 audit is currently being finalised and it has so far failed to submit financial statements for its 2023/24 audit.
The Auditor General conducted an audit of the airlines finances in the 2016/7 year. The following year the audit was paused due to severe financial difficulties. SAA was put into business rescue in December 2019, and released again to operate on its own in April 2021. The AGs office told the committee that following this, they resumed the paused audit and completed the four year backlog of audits from 2018 to 2022 simultaneously.
SAA emerged from insolvency in 2022, posting positive equity of R682 million for the first time in five years. However, the AGs office identified several risks in its audit findings around consequence management, executive stability and governance structures.
Lack of funding to finance expansionThe biggest concern highlighted by the AGs office, however, was the lack of funding to implement the airlines expansion plan.
