Chairperson of the portfolio committee on public enterprises Khaya Magaxa has called on the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to probe the now collapsed deal between South African Airways (SAA) and Takatso as they believe it was not above board.
This followed the meeting of the portfolio committee to finalise its investigation into Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan over the deal.
Cabinet endorsed the scrapping of the deal two weeks ago.
Gordhan had said the deal was called off because of new valuations.
The deal was R3.1 billion.
Magaxa said following the meeting of the committee they agreed that the SIU must conduct further investigations.
This was in relation to claims made by former Director-General in the department of public enterprises Kgathatso Tlhakudi that his signature was forged.
Magaxa said the SIU would have forensic investigators to look at issues raised by the former director-general.
“As we now know, the former DG has emphatically disputed the authenticity of his signature on the so-called Molisane memorandum, and this presents a very serious dispute of facts which can only be resolved by an entity which has forensic capability. For this reason, the committee should seriously consider referring this matter to the Special Investigating Unit, for further investigation.
“In view of the above, the committee cannot say that the SAA – Takatso transaction was above board and will, in this regard, be recommending that law enforcement agencies must do their work in unravelling the truth about this transaction, particularly the alleged forgery of the former DG’s signature in the strategic equity partner appointment process,” said Magaxa.
Gordhan had always maintained that the deal was above aboard.
He got into disagreements with the committee since last year when members of the committee demanded more answers on the sale of SAA.
Gordhan then requested that the meeting be held in camera because the documents were commercially sensitive and they did not want them to land in the hands of competitors of the airline.
Politics