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The legal opinion on the use of Section 16 of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) by Finance Minister, Malusi Gigaba, to bail out South African Airways (SAA) to the tune of R3,0 billion, confirms our belief that it was not lawful.

The Auditor-General, Kimi Makwetu, must now make a finding as to whether the allocation is in compliance with section 16 of the PFMA or not.

As such, the DA will write to the Auditor-General to request that he confirms that the use of Section 16 was referred to him within 14 days as required by Section 16 (4)(a) of the PFMA and to request details of his finding on the legality or otherwise of the use of section 16 by Gigaba.

Earlier this month, the DA wrote to the Chair of the Standing Committee on Finance, Yunus Carrim, to request that a legal opinion on this be obtained from the Parliamentary legal advisors.

The legal opinion states that the expenditure was foreseeable and, indeed, foreseen as clearly stated in the Cabinet memo dated the 22nd of August 2017.

Specifically, the opinion states that “it appears that the expenditure was foreseeable and as such, not unusual or atypical. It would not have been the first time such expenditure had to be affected.”

It seems that the ANC and Gigaba will do all in their power, even apparently act illegally, to continue to throw money at the failing airline at the expense of the people of South Africa.

Issued by DA