South African Finance Minister Tito Mboweni again expressed his doubts about the need for a national airline less than a month after agreeing to find the cash for a 10.5 billion rand ($685 million) bailout of the stricken carrier, Bloomberg News reported. In a series of late-night tweets, Mboweni asked his near 1 million followers whether the country requires state-owned South African Airways or whether a private company should be given the chance to come in and fill the gap left by its demise. Mboweni has long been an opponent of using state funds to bail out SAA, which has been in bankruptcy protection for almost a year and hasn’t flown a commercial flight since the start of South Africa’s coronavirus lockdown in March. He has clashed with Pravin Gordhan, the public enterprises minister, who has insisted SAA can be restructured, revived and partly sold to a private bidder.
