The Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Friday it noted with "great interest" the view expressed by the minister of finance, Tito Mboweni that South African Airways (SAA) should be closed down.
Speaking at an investor conference in New York televised live on SABC on Thursday night, Mboweni said that decisions over the future of the state carrier were not under his remit.
SAA has not generated a profit since 2011 and survives on state guarantees, with the latest R5 billion bailout proposed by the government last month.
"It's loss-making, we are unlikely to sort out the situation, so my view would be close it down. Why I say close it down, it is because it's unlikely that you are going to find any private sector equity partner who will come join this asset," Mboweni said.
SAA recorded losses of R5.6 billion in 2014/15, R1.4 billion in 2015/16, R5.5 billion in 2016/17 and R 5.7 billion in 2017/18, and is running at a loss. The airline's turn-around plan makes provisions for further losses until the 2020/21 financial year.
Alf Lees, DA spokesperson on finance, said this troubled state-owned entity continued to be a huge drain on the fiscus.
Lees said the DA had long expressed the view that SAA should not be kept alive through taxpayer bailouts and that if it was to survive it must do so on its own and be privatised.
"Mboweni’s refreshing views on SAA are in sharp contrast to the repeated mantra by the [African National Congress] in Parliament that maintains that the state carrier is a developmental tool that cannot be done away with and which will never be privatised," Lees said.
"The first step towards saving SAA and the approximately 10 300 jobs must be to put SAA into business rescue. If business rescue fails there will be no other option but to liquidate SAA.
"There should be no further bailouts for SAA and the R5 billion that Tito Mboweni wants to appropriate for the airline in a special appropriations bill must be rejected by Parliament."
Lees said the DA would oppose the Special Appropriation Bill and would do everything in its power to prevent another massive bailout to another dysfunctional state-owned company.
