Legal Articles and Guides

The Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) has ruled the provisional liquidators of SA Express can sell and transfer the state-owned airline’s property and try to attract new investment for the airline.

SA Express has become the first state-owned entity to be placed under provisional liquidation after the failure of its business rescue process, says a Business Maverick report.

The government has told the SAA business rescue practitioners (BRP) that it is unable to provide the airline with more funding, portending its imminent death or at best an orderly winding down, notes a Business Day report.

Former SAA chairperson Dudu Myeni has struggled to explain why she disregarded a previous board decision and instruction from the Finance Minister to sign a leasing deal with Airbus in 2015 and instead tried to alter the agreement without board approval, says a Daily Maverick report.

A Labour Court judgment, which on Friday dismissed an application to compel SAA to consult employees pending retrenchments was a ‘travesty of justice’, according to Numsa, which, together with the Sacca, failed to force the employer to begin consultations as required by the LRA.

With the dust from its failed bid to avoid business rescue barely settled, SA Express (SAX) is already gearing up for another legal battle – this time over more than R4.7m which global baggage services company Bagport says it is owed by the ailing state-owned airline.

More damning evidence continues to pile up against embattled former SAA board chairperson Dudu Myeni in the North Gauteng High Court (Pretoria), where Outa and the SAA Pilots Association want her to be declared a delinquent director.

The appointment of Ntiyiso Consulting as a transactional adviser to Wonderboom Airport by the City of Tshwane, has been suspended.

SA Express, which was ordered yesterday by the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) to go under business rescue for failing to settle its debt of R11m to global logistics firm Ziegler SA, is to appeal the ruling.

Regional airliner SA Airlink is heading to court to get permission for litigation against SAA under business rescue, according to Rapport.

The Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) has reserved judgment in an application brought by a private logistics company for SA Express to be placed in business rescue over unpaid debt, notes a Fin24 report.

SA Airlink has turned to the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) in an urgent bid to halt SA Express from embarking on additional routes into Africa.

CemAir's urgent application to overturn the Aviation Authority's latest suspension and grounding notice has been dismissed with costs in the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg), the regulator said yesterday, according to a Fin24 report. Cemair had been suspended late in 2018, and again early in January 2019 while the authority conducted a full audit of the airline.

Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba is planning to go to the Constitutional Court to fight the Oppenheimers in a legal matter that a City Press report says threatens his Cabinet position. Gigaba has so far lost battles with Fireblade Aviation, owned by the wealthy Oppenheimer family, with the courts agreeing with Fireblade that Gigaba granted it approval for a private terminal at OR Tambo International Airport.

The Guptas have returned their Bombardier jet to SA after the Canadian bank that financed the aircraft asked the court to hold them in contempt for failing to deliver the aircraft on time. The jet registered as ZS-OAK flew from Dubai on Friday and landed at Lanseria Airport.