South Africa’s insolvent national arms company is seeking to fire 13% of its workers in a bid to survive after the government spurned its plea for a bailout, Bloomberg News reported. Denel SOC Ltd., whose predecessor was established to bypass sanctions against the apartheid regime, has told 379 workers in its artillery, ammunition and armored-car divisions that they could lose their jobs, according to Helgard Cronje, a representative of labor union Solidarity. The so-called section 189 notice sent to the employees is a legal step needed before cuts can take place.

Money owed to aircraft lessors and some creditors of South African Airways is not covered by a 10.5 billion rand ($665 million) government bailout, SAA’s administrators said, Reuters reported. South Africa’s government allocated the latest cash injection for SAA in last month’s mid-term budget, but says it will not put further money into the airline. SAA’s administrators told Reuters on Thursday that 1.7 billion rand owed to lessors and 600 million rand which it owes to creditors from before the airline went into administration nearly a year ago would not be covered.

When South African president Cyril Ramaphosa recently extolled in parliament his government’s provision of R500bn ($31bn) to steer the nation’s battered economy through the pandemic, there was some awkward fine print for the country’s banks, the Financial Times reported.

South Africa’s Competition Tribunal on Friday approved a rescue deal for struggling airline Comair on condition that the carrier freezes job cuts for three years and investors allocate shares to a special purpose black empowerment vehicle, Reuters reported. Comair, which operates the British Airways franchise in South Africa and budget airline Kulula.com, was forced into a form of bankruptcy protection in May after South Africa’s coronavirus lockdown halted its operations two months earlier.

The South African government pledged to freeze public sector wages for the next three years to contain a yawning budget deficit but forecast that debt would peak at a higher level in a mid-term budget unveiled on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Africa’s most industrialised economy was already in recession before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, and one of the world’s strictest lockdowns has exacerbated its woes. The wage-freeze plan raises the risk of strikes by the country’s 1.3 million civil servants and follows a pledge in February by Finance Minister Tito Mboweni to curb a rising wage bill.

South Africa’s government said on Thursday it wanted its national airline flying again in the first half of next year, after giving it a 10.5 billion rand ($650 million) bailout in the mid-term budget, Reuters reported. The Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) said the latest cash injection meant a restructuring plan for state-owned South African Airways (SAA), which has been in a form of bankruptcy protection since December, can now go forward.

World Bank officials have told South Africa’s government it will need to reduce its wage bill to secure a loan and that it doesn’t want the money to be used to bail out insolvent state companies, a person familiar with the situation said, Bloomberg News reported.12 Those demands have stalled negotiations on the loan that began in April, the person said, asking not to be identified because the content of the discussions have not been made public.

South Africa’s Treasury is likely to announce additional funding for the state arms company and a government-owned agricultural lender in this week’s budget, people familiar with the situation said, Bloomberg News reported. Denel SOC Ltd., which makes attack helicopters and other weapons, will probably receive between 2 billion rand ($123 million) and 3 billion rand, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information hasn’t been made public. The Land and Agricultural Development Bank of South Africa will get 1.5 billion rand to 2 billion rand, the two people said.

South Africa should act to preserve its insolvent national airline and seek to partner the carrier with Ethiopian Airlines Group, according to a study commissioned for ruling-party lawmakers, Bloomberg News reported. The assessment, seen by Bloomberg, was prepared by African Aviation Services Ltd. and dated Oct. 4. It was presented to a group of African National Congress lawmakers on Monday, according to an ANC official who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public.

South Africa’s National Treasury wants strict conditions attached to any guarantees it provides for loans to the country’s embattled state airline, according to two people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg News reported. Treasury and Department of Public Enterprises officials met Saturday to discuss ways to restart South African Airways, the people said, asking not to be identified because the talks are private. Representatives of two South African banks attended the talks, they said. SAA halted operations and sought bankruptcy protection in December.