SAA scandal: Myeni must be fired

24 November 2015

In a frantic attempted cover up by the Chairperson of SAA, Dudu Myeni, it emerged that late yesterday evening the state-owned airline applied for an urgent court interdict to remove a story exposing the contents of an explosive internal memorandum by acting CEO, Musa Zwane, informing the board of the dire state of the enterprise’s finances.

The reason for this interdict is quite clear as according to reports today, the existence of this internal memo serves to acknowledge and confirm the absolute financial shambles in which SAA finds itself under the leadership of Myeni. The red lights continue as the memo points to reckless and gross negligence, a real threat of insolvency, and deep secrecy and mistrust internally. Its also makes the following points to SAA’s board:

SAA must either secure an equity injection from Government or apply for business rescue – by continuing trading under current circumstances is reckless;

SAA is technically insolvent as its liabilities exceed the value of its assets and for this reason requires a government guarantee to be declared a going concern;

Furthermore, it is on the verge of a CIPC call for SAA to end all operations.

It is not by chance that SAA has attempted to bury this memo and the information it contains. Myeni appeared before the a joint meeting of the Portfolio Committee of Public Enterprises and the Standing Committee of Finance last week – Wednesday 18 November 2015 – where the existence of this memo of advice and its contents were not disclosed. Rather, Myeni conveyed a completely contradictory story in which the airline was financially sound.

This certainly raises a question as to whether Myeni in fact misled Parliament.

If the contents of this memo are indeed true, then according to Section 77 of the Companies Act and Section 83 of the Public Finance Management Act, the accounting officer, which in this case is Ms Myeni, can be suspended or fired for a breach of her legal obligations.

This latest controversy at SAA - under Myeni’s watch – requires Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene to urgently intervene in the affairs of SAA and heed the DA’s previous call to fire Dudu Myeni once and for all.

Statement issued by Natasha Mazzone MP, DA Shadow Minister of Public Enterprises, 24 November 2015