South Africa’s finance ministry will not be giving any media interviews on troubled national carrier, the South African Airways (SAA), it emerged on Thursday.

This will continue until the process of transferring the administrative powers relating to the airline company from the current minister responsible for the public enterprises, Malusi Gigaba, to the finance ministry led by Nhlanhla Nene, had been completed.

The transfer of these administrative powers which are derived from the South African Airways Act 2007 will be done via a proclamation in the Government Gazette, the finance ministry said on Thursday.

“Such a transfer of administrative powers from one Minister to another is allowed for in terms of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa,” the ministry said. “The process of transferring these powers will also involve consultations between the Minister of Public Enterprises and the Minister of Finance as well as include the introduction of the Minister of Finance to the airline’s board of directors.”

Acting SAA CEO Nico Bezuidenhout has unveiled the national carrier’s 90-Day Action Plan, which is aimed at steering SAA back to full implementation of its Long Term Turnaround Strategy (LTTS).

SAA has been plagued by allegations of massive corruption at the upper echelons of the firm, which has been under-performing for many years and has survived by hand-outs from the government.