The business rescue practitioners of South African Express Airways (SAX) are set to appear before the Select Committee on Petitions and Executive Undertakings to address concerns over the liquidation process and the lack of compensation for more than 600 former employees.
The South Gauteng High Court granted a final liquidation order for the state-owned airline in September 2022. At the time, the Department of Public Enterprise (DPE), which has oversight of SAX, acknowledged that many employees would not receive any compensation during the liquidation process, as reported by Travel News.
Recently, a former employee, Hlumani Khasibe, representing 691 uncompensated employees, submitted a petition to the National Council of Provinces asking for its intervention.
In the petition, Khasibe states that employees had expected retrenchment packages during the airline’s collapse but that this did not materialise for all staff. He further told the committee that the group approached the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) in an effort to escalate their dispute to the Labour Court, but the matter did not progress.
In response, the Committee has asked for the Department of Transport to disclose all relevant records relating to the liquidation to support its oversight. It has also asked the DPE and the SAHRC to provide explanations regarding their involvement in the matter.
The employees form part of a wider pool of creditors still awaiting settlement from the liquidated carrier.
In September, the Auditor General of South Africa revealed that it might be forced to write off SAX’s R21 million debt for auditing services.
Mango’s slow-moving wind-down
Mango Airlines continues to postpone a key meeting with its creditors and voting interest holders, most recently from November 7 until November 18, further slowing the finalisation of its wind-down business rescue plan or liquidation.
When Mango entered business rescue in July 2021 it owed approximately R2,91 billion to its creditors, as reported by Travel News. This year, some of its creditors filed a suit to oppose a business rescue plan that would have transferred their claims to an unnamed investor.
Additionally, the airline has an unflown ticket liability of about R183m. Mango urged all customer to verify their unflown tickets and vouchers by September 1, so that they could secure a dividend payout during the airline’s liquidation or structured wind-down.
