South Africa opposed to liquidation of national airline SAA - minister

CAPE TOWN, May 6 (Reuters) - South Africa does not want a fire sale of troubled national airline SAA assets nor for the carrier to be liquidated, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said on Wednesday.

Gordhan told a parliamentary committee that the government was in talks with rescue specialists in charge of South African Airways (SAA) on how best to save the airline, which entered a form of bankruptcy protection in December.

"In our view, if this wind down process the business practitioner team seem to be on at the moment continues as they proposed it will not serve the original objective that we set for the business rescue process," Gordhan said.

"We also want to indicate that there should be no fire sale of important assets of SAA, nor should there any movement towards liquidation when in fact there are many alternatives that can be pursued." (Reporting by Wendell Roelf; Writing by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo)