Legal action is a big deal, SAA board

It is astonishing that, eight months into a potentially reputation-wrecking issue involving one of its senior executives, the board of directors of South African Airways (SAA) has not even met to discuss the matter.

According to board chair Derek Hanekom, the matter “may” be tabled at its next meeting.

Clearly, the SAA board does not regard allegations of theft of a competitor’s intellectual and commercial property to be a big deal.

Last week, we confirmed that a criminal complaint had been filed against SAA’s head of sales and marketing, Carla da Silva, and several other staff members who report to her.

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The charge was laid last week by her former employer, Airlink, and comes on the heels of civil action for the alleged theft of sensitive data from the airline.

The legal actions suggest, at minimum, highly unethical behaviour by Da Silva and others in SAA.

Surely, one would have thought, such serious accusations should have been discussed as a matter of urgency by the board, which has a fiduciary duty to protect the reputation of the airline.

Perhaps its members think The Citizen will go away and forget about the story.

Because it is taxpayer money shoring up SAA, we certainly won’t let this go.