Parliament's public enterprises committee accepted commercial interest as the reason to not disclose details of SAA's sale to Takatso. The 51% sale of the national airliner is being renegotiated and this 'live' status was held up as the reason to maintain radio silence.

The public enterprises committee's decision on Wednesday not to disclose details of the sale of SAA to Takatso didn't come without railroading - if the committee were to decide to publicly release the confidential documents that it was shown behind closed doors last week, litigation may ensue and it could get personal.

"Should the committee release the documents, the committee will be liable for any possible claim or liability, not the department," Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan wrote to the committee chairperson, ANC MP Khaya Magaxa, ahead of the meeting.

Parliamentary legal adviser Andile Tetyana told MPs, "Where we came from was that MPs must sign non-disclosure agreements and we opposed it. Is the information [from last week's documents] confidential? My answer is: yes, of course it is confidential... The reason is simple: the transaction is still live."

Wednesday's parliamentary committee discussions were a take two of the machinations around the mid-2021 sale of 51% of the national airliner following a series of multibillion-rand bailouts. Last Friday, behind closed doors, MPs were given brief access to documents including the SAA valuation, sale and purchase agreement and the shortlist of interested bidders.

It's long been in the public domain that Takatso...