South Africa in talks with Citibank on state airline debt

South Africa is in talks with Citibank on how to settle a 1.8b rand ($135m) loan to the state airline due to be repaid at the end of September, Treasury Director General Dondo Mogajane said Tuesday. “We owe Citibank about 1.8b rand. We had an understanding with them to roll (the debt) to September. Citi did indicate to us that they will not be in a position to roll further and we engaged them. It’s an ongoing consultation,” Mogajane said. Mogajane said in total the airline had 6.9b rand of debt maturing at the end of September. “We are engaging the lenders, so as much as 6.9b rand is due on paper it might just be that we don’t have to pay the 6.9b, consultations continue,” Mogajane said. State-owned South African Airways was in July provided with state funds to help it repay loans of about 2.3b rand to Standard Chartered. SAA already relies on government guarantees to support its finances. Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba, speaking at the same news conference, denied there was a plan to tap the government pension fund to bail out SAA.<br/>