More SAA rot revealed

3 July 2017

When SAA appears in Parliament on Thursday, 3 August, the DA will interrogate it on the awarding of an apparent fraudulent R1 billion contract to SAA subsidiary, SA Airways Technical (SAAT).

We will also submit a written question to the Minister of Finance, Malusi Gigaba, to obtain the full details of this deal as well as what action is being taken to prosecute those who benefitted unduly.

The revelation of this contract follows hot on the heels of the SAA taxpayer bailout of R2.3 billion.

It seems that the awarding of this contract was aided and abetted by senior SAAT managers and illustrates the depth of mismanagement of SAA and its subsidiaries, starting from the top with Board Chair, Dudu Myeni.

SAAT has contributed to the overall SAA losses and posted losses of around R122 million in 2014 and R260 million in 2015. These losses, given the revelation of the R 1 billion deal, may well have been the result of corruption and not only mismanagement.

Even Mango, the low-cost subsidiary of SAA, posted a loss of R 40.5 million in 2016, despite having the benefit of leasing aircraft from SAA, its mother company, at rates that were apparently way below the actual costs incurred by SAA.

The national carrier is losing R370 million monthly. That is over R12 million per day. The mismanagement crisis at SAA is getting out of hand.

It is now clear that the rot has permeated throughout the SAA group of companies. The mess that is SAA must be cleaned up immediately.

Issued by Alf Lees, DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Finance, 3 July 2017