SAA board ‘delinquent’ – Outa

MYENI: ‘MISSED OPPORTUNITY’ TO RID THE AIRLINE OF THE CHAIR

Outa wants the re-appointed SAA chairperson Dudu Myeni and others declared delinquent.

Watchbody is outraged at Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s apparent aboutface in recommending Dudu as the continuing boss at SAA.

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has vowed to lead a charge to have re-appointed South African Airways (SAA) chairperson Dudu Myeni – and other colleagues – declared delinquent in terms of the Companies Act.

Responding to the long-awaited appointment of the new SAA board, Outa chairperson Wayne Duvenage on Friday said government, as the shareholder, should have taken the opportunity to get rid of Myeni.

‘Held accountable’

Duvenage said Outa believed “she should be held accountable for the poor governance and performance issues at SAA over the past few years”.

He said questionable actions combined with loss-making performances had snowballed under Myeni’s watch, costing the taxpayer billions of rands in bailouts over recent years.

Accordingly, the airline is facing huge pressure from funding institutions to release financial reports to provide grounds of its solvency.

While concerned about the retention of Myeni, Outa welcomed the appointment of the new board. It hoped the poor performance of SAA would be rectified, and that the airline would be turned into the profitable organisation it once was, “but with Myeni as the chair we expect challenges to abound”.

Outa said SAA would only return to profitability if it appointed talented executive directors. It called on the national carrier to re-appoint some senior executives who had been “purged”, naming former head of HR, Thuli Mpshe, former head of treasury, Cynthia Stimpel and former head of commercial, Sylvain Bosc.

Outa said they were suspended for standing their ground against the questionable conduct of the previous board.

“Bosc was recently cleared of all charges against him. We believe Mpshe and Stimpel will also be cleared of the charges against them,” Duvenage said.

“These people were purged from the airline as a result of their morally-courageous stances against the dubious conduct of senior management.

“Even if the new board does not reappoint these people, and others such as Wolf Meyer and Nico Bezuidenhout who also recently left under duress, they would be wise to interview them in order to gain insight into the questionable conduct of the past.”

Outa hoped the new board would also dig deep to uncover past and present corruption and maladministration.

“A thorough review of many contracts should be undertaken, and note should be taken of the findings from the 2015 Ernst & Young audit, which will go a long way to shining some light on this scourge within the airline,” Outa director of legal affairs Ivan Herselman said.

Same track

Outa said the announcement of a new board did not change its current investigation into the serious transgressions and other management issues at SAA.

“We will continue with our investigation, and call on the new SAA board to use all avenues and powers available to them to root out corruption and maladministration within the airline.”