Cape Town - Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan and the government have 20 days to provide both confidential and non-confidential records to the parties that hauled them to court over the controversial sale of SAA.
This is contained in a Western Cape High Court order after Toto Investment Holdings launched an application to interdict the implementation of the transaction with a strategic equity partner in SAA, pending a review application.
It also wanted disclosure of all documents on a non-confidential basis in the SAA-Takatso Consortium share sale deal.
The government sold 51% of shares in SAA to a strategic equity partner, Takatso consortium following the business rescue process.
Last week, Gordhan, who has refused to share details on the deal, told the MPs that by the end of the year or soon afterwards, the partnership between the government and Takatso would be formalised and commercialised.
However, the court said this week that the confidential and non-confidential records should be provided to the parties involved in the litigation within 20 days.
“No person other than a permitted party shall have access to the confidential record and the confidential pleadings,” said Judge Nathan Erasmus.
He dismissed the interdict application with costs, saying: “The main application is referred for case management in order for the main application to be heard on January 30, 2023 or any date (set) by the case management judge and determined at first instance prior to March 2023.”
The department undertook to comply with the court directive to provide a non-confidential version of the record of the transaction and the confidential version of the record within the 20 days stipulated in the court order.
However, the department said it was interesting to note that certain political parties want to intervene in the matter with nefarious intentions.
“It is clear that this is a political agenda which is intended to set back and disrupt the reforms of SOEs. This will facilitate further corruption,” it said.
“Furthermore, the question is who is Toto Investments, who are the people involved and what is their interest in the matter? Toto Investments must be open and transparent of who they are and who they represent.”
The department said the judgment was in line with the suggestions that the State Attorney made to Toto Investments before the matter was heard in court.
“We welcome the judgment as we have stated in our affidavit that the transaction is governed by confidential undertakings and the department was not at liberty to disclose to third parties’ certain documents related to the transaction unless under a confidentiality regime.
“It is unfortunate that Toto had to press ahead with this ill-fated strategy after we discussed with them at length about the confidentiality nature of the transaction,” Gordhan said.
The department said the judgment paved the way for it to proceed with the implementation of the SAA-Takatso transaction.
“Since the interdict application was dismissed, the department can continue taking steps to implement the transaction.”
The department insisted that it remained committed to ensuring that the transaction was implemented as soon as possible.
“The disruptive forces will not deter our efforts in ensuring that a restructured, agile and competitive national airline emerges,” it said.
Toto Investment Holdings could not be reached for comment.
Toto is a black-owned and managed investment company founded by Bongani Gigaba.
The company, according to Gigaba’s LinkedIn profile, seeks to create a diversified investment base spanning mining and mining inputs, industrials, infrastructure, financial services and agribusiness, and related business enterprises.
Cape Times