South Africa’s government has started talks with private entities interested in buying into the country’s insolvent national carrier, which needs at least 10 billion rand ($583 million) to resume operations, Bloomberg News reported. A team from the Department of Public Enterprises and advisers from FirstRand Ltd.’s Rand Merchant Bank began negotiations after receiving as many as four promising proposals regarding South African Airways, according to Kgathatso Tlhakudi, the DPE’s director general.

South Africa’s state defence firm Denel made a 1.7 billion rand ($99 million) loss in the 2019/20 financial year, the ministry that oversees the company said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Denel, which makes equipment from armoured vehicles to missiles for the South African armed forces and clients around the world, is suffering a liquidity crisis aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic. It has struggled to pay salaries and has yet to publish its results for the financial year ended in March.

South Africa’s Rand Merchant Bank, the investment banking arm of FirstRand Ltd., has been appointed as an adviser to help the government assess offers for stakes in its insolvent national airline, according to two people familiar with the situation, Bloomberg News reported. The state is looking to raise more than 10 billion rand ($575 million) that South African Airways administrators say is needed to revive its operations eight months after going into bankruptcy protection.

The planned business rescue of South African Airways is in limbo because government attempts to raise 5.3 billion rand ($307 million) of immediate funding from commercial banks failed to elicit a response, a person familiar with the situation said, Bloomberg News reported. The administrators of the state-owned airline can’t hand over the business to management because it is insolvent, the person said.

The administrators of South African Airways, the state-owned airline that’s in bankruptcy protection, want the government to set aside 16.4 billion rand ($998 million) that it’s guaranteed to pay creditors, Bloomberg News reported. The Treasury says the current structure of its guarantees should suffice.

Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. agreed to release some funds to a municipality in South Africa’s Free State province to help it cover running costs, after seizing its bank accounts earlier this week, Bloomberg News reported. The Maluti-a-Phofung Local Municipality owes 5.3 billion rand ($318 million) in unpaid electricity bills and must reach an agreement to service the debt and its current account by Aug. 7, Eskom said in a statement Saturday.

All conditions for a rescue plan for South African Airways (SAA) have been met, apart from a guarantee letter lenders need from the government, the state-owned airline’s administrators said on Thursday, Reuters reported. The administrators will ask creditors at a meeting on Friday for the letter, stating that state guarantees will remain in force until the lenders’ claims are paid out in full, to be agreed by July 27, later than a previous deadline.

The South African government has not committed to fund a restructuring plan for struggling South African Airways (SAA), Finance Minister Tito Mboweni said in court papers seen by Reuters on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Administrators took over SAA in December after almost a decade of financial losses, and last week creditors approved the restructuring plan, which requires at least 10 billion rand ($600 million) of new funds, on the understanding the government would find the necessary cash.

South Africa’s government has committed to secure funds for the overhaul of struggling state-owned South African Airways (SAA), the public enterprises and finance ministries said in a letter to the airline’s administrators seen by Reuters, Reuters reported. The administrators, who took over SAA in December after almost a decade of financial losses, said they needed a letter of support from the government with a funding commitment for their restructuring plan to work.

South Africa’s latest ban on alcohol sales is likely to force 35,000 bar owners in the poorest communities into bankruptcy, according to industry bodies representing the country’s biggest drink makers, Bloomberg News reported. The decision to abruptly prohibit the retail of booze for a second time since March is aimed at reducing alcohol-related hospital admissions while surging coronavirus cases put a strain on emergency wards.