Picture: Michel Bega
SAA’s head of sales and marketing Carla da Silva has resigned and will be exiting the state-owned company soon, The Citizen has learnt from reliable internal sources.
Da Silva’s resignation comes after civil action and a criminal complaint were laid against her and several other SAA staffers by competing carrier and her former employer, Airlink.
The action came after alleged industrial espionage and theft of intellectual property of sensitive commercial information off Airlink’s computer servers.
Wayne Duvenage of the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) welcomed the news, should it be confirmed.
“If Carla da Silva has resigned, this is the first step with regards to doing the right thing. However, this does not exonerate the CEO and others within SAA of their responsibilities. In other words, why is the CEO not being held accountable for his role in knowing what was happening and not taking action at the outset?”
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SAA declined to comment but the airline spokesperson said, via its PR agency Flow Communications, that executives were too busy with the standing committee on public accounts to confirm or deny the resignation.
Despite several calls to obtain a yes or no answer, the agency did not respond or return calls.
Airlink chief executive Rodger Foster confirmed that “Airlink has been made aware that Ms da Silva is leaving SAA. Airlink cannot comment on SAA’s internal affairs and it is too early to say what this means. But we will weigh our options when things become clear.”
An analyst told The Citizen he expected Airlink to continue its civil action and not withdraw the criminal complaint against Da Silva.
“The feeling is that while she has resigned, or whether she was asked to resign, should not be a get-out-of-trouble free card.”
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A source close to the investigation into Da Silva and other staff at SAA noted that the investigation, as confirmed by The Hawks, into alleged nefarious activities would not be put to bed based on whether she remained employed at SAA, or not.
The controversy had its genesis last December when Foster alerted SAA chief executive John Lamola about Da Silva’s alleged conduct.
A letter, seen by The Citizen, not only listed the purported theft of intellectual property and sensitive commercial information, but also detailed several other matters such as unethical approaches to Airlink’s trade partners as soon as Da Silva commenced her tenure at SAA in December 2023.
Several whistleblowers at SAA alerted The Citizen to the distribution of Airlink’s information on internal channels at the state-owned carrier.
An investigation revealed that Da Silva and other staffers were allegedly guilty of two instances of successive data breaches.
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While SAA never admitted fault, it confirmed that it had destroyed all data belonging to Airlink allegedly illegally obtained and distributed by Da Silva.
Until now, SAA and its board have also not acknowledged, nor acted against, the implicated individuals.
They simply maintained that the matter was sub judice and board chair Derek Hanekom admitted in August that the board had not applied its mind to the allegations, but would not say when the directors would consider the allegations.
Other board members approached for comment did not respond.
In September, SAA suspended its chief medical officer Dr Nhlanhla Sishaba after the South African Civil Aviation Authority said it was investigating her for several alleged fraudulent activities.
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Sishaba has denied the allegations. At the time, SAA said in a statement that the airline did not tolerate unethical behaviour.
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