He says a plan is in place to employ, train and refer them.

Over 2,000 workers at the struggling national carrier face retrenchment, after creditors approved the business rescue plan.

Gordhan spoke to Karima Brown on The Fix earlier.

“We have a social plan that has been developed...and the idea of the social plan is to have a lay off scheme so that in the immediate, up to a 1,000 people can be employed and another 1,000 are part of what is called a training lay off scheme where other arms of government and other institutions like the transport SETA will participate and the private sector as well so that we keep another 1,000 people in reserves so that as the airline grows and as conditions change, those people can be brought on board," said Gordhan.

Gordhan said the R10-billion funding required for SAA, will be "mobilised."

“Over the years, lenders or banks, have actually lend money to SAA through government, that money has to be paid back. The bulk of what we talking about is money that is owed and money that has to be paid back. Second category requires retrenchment costs to be paid,” added Gordhan.

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