South Africa’s Troubled State-owned Airline is Seeking a New Strategic Partner 

South African Airways (SAA) chief executive John Lamola said in an interview that, “You can’t have an airline run entirely by the government. The best scenario would be to list SAA on the stock market, in which the South African government would still have a ‘golden share’ to ensure the country’s strategic economic interests are protected,” he said. The government reached an agreement in principle in 2021 to sell a 51 per cent stake to the Takatso Consortium — a private grouping led by pan-African infrastructure company Harith. But the deal unravelled last week after disagreements on price and political opposition to privatisation from within the governing African National Congress. SAA has received $2.7bn in bailouts over the past 16 years and has a history of political interference that has led to much boardroom upheaval. However, unpublished accounts for the year to March 2023, now being audited, show that SAA turned its first profit in more than a decade, Lamola said. “Some will say this is a modest profit but, given where SAA is coming from, I wouldn’t say this is a modest achievement at all.”

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