Minister of Public Enterprises, Pravin Gordhan, has lodged an urgent application to the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria to provisionally interdict the sale of Mango Airways. If this is successful, it will force the airline into liquidation.
The Minister lodged the interdict after he belatedly submitted a petition to the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) against a September 2023 decision made by the North Gauteng High Court which, effectively would have allowed the sale to go ahead.
Business rescue practitioner (BRP) Sipho Sono announced at the beginning of February that the sale of the airline could legally proceed, following the Minister’s failure to appeal the decision by the end of January.
According to News24, the court filings submitted by the Department read: “If the BRP is not interdicted from proceeding with [the sale]… the Department of Public Enterprises and the Minister of Public Enterprises would suffer serious irreparable harm.”
The Department of Public Enterprises's legal team acknowledged that the appeal was submitted late, but said there were valid administrative reasons for the delay, and that the appeal was submitted before Sono announced he would continue with the sale. Sono has expressed calm about the situation, saying that he is legally justified in proceeding with the sale.
"An interdict cannot reach into the past and undo this fact,” said Sono.
The potential buyer of the airline and the sale amount remain undisclosed. If Gordhan's interdict is successful, the likelihood is that Mango Airlines opportunity to reinstate its domestic route license which will expire in August this year. Sono said if this were to happen, the damage would be irreversible and the airline would be wound down.
The Minister applied for leave to appeal the decision in December last year, which was denied by the High Court. The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) said that Gordhan's attempts to appeal the ruling are a waste of taxpayers' money.
“Gordhan does not care that workers, the airline, and the preferred bidder are in an indefinite limbo because of his reckless decisions,” the union said.
