It's not only about money
but transformation and restructuring, says Macozoma
TRANSNET AS a whole is heading for a rocky period with its trade unions as the full implications of restructuring sink in, and this has started to take its toll on staff, says m.d. Saki Macozoma.
He warned the parliamentary portfolio committee on public enterprises last week that Transnet could not rule out the possibility of industrial action. Transnet and its unions are currently deadlocked about salary negotiations which are due to go to conciliation on June 17.
This deadlock is not just about what we are offering. It is the larger issues such as transformation, restructuring and the drive we are putting into profitability, he said.
Those are the issues we have to resolve and take a stand on now. If we do not do it, they will still be there next year and the next year.
A major priority to date, he said, had been transferring all SAA's assets and liabilities from Transnet, including aircraft leases and
pension liabilities.
Following numerous trips abroad for talks with bankers who had backed various loan obligations, he said it was hoped that all the consents would be obtained, from the lenders in the next two months to change and transfer the assets from Transnet to SAA.
After that has been achieved, it will be possible to bring in an alliance partner for the airline. But he warned that some might be tempted to go for the highest bidder who may, in turn, decide to dismantle the SAA identity and put its own name on the airline.
In the past, he said, Transnet had tended to sweep under the carpet the problems associated with transformation in the hope that whoever bought into SAA, for example, would accept it without conditions attached.
If this happened, the buyers could discount it to the bone. They will cut all the fat and put up a new lean and mean company. You will look at it and cry. We have to avoid that situation.
By Leonard Neill
