SAAF C160Z Saga
Date: 26 July 2005
Despite the sale of eight retired South African Air force (SAAF) Transall C.160Zs (331, 332, 333, 334, 335, 336, 338 and 339) to UK-based Heli-Lift Ltd on November 10, 2000, with all the SAAF's spares and ground support equipment (see News items for January 2001), the aircraft remain stored at AFB Waterkloof. Government defence acquisition and disposal agency, Armscor, began legal proceedings in June 2005 against Heli-Lift to recover R11 million ($1.65 million) still outstanding from the original purchase deal.
It appears that as the aircraft were acquired during the arms embargo period, no 'traceability' for any of the C.160Zs components can officialy be established, making them unsaleable by Heli-Lift. Technically, the aircraft remain the property of South Africa untill fully paid for by Heli-Lift, meaning that Armscor is within its rights to 'recover' them after which they would most likely now be sold for scrap.
The German Government wanted to acquire the aircraft's engines from Heli-Lift, but only wished to pursue the deal on a government-to-government basis: they approached Armscor to act as middleman and a successful deal was brokered. The lack of provenance for the aircraft components is not an issue with a government-to-government deal, hence the contract was concluded without difficulty.
AirForces Monthly
