‘Tip of iceberg’: Investigation shows ANC cadres go on R3.7bn SAA looting spree

South African Airways (SAA) was the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for several board members, staff and suppliers.

Before business rescue saved the airline from total implosion, financial irregularities amounting to more than R3.7 billion were clocked up.

SIU released ‘damning’ interim report

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has released a damning interim report on corruption within the state-owned enterprise, suggesting its investigation might be the tip of the iceberg.

The investigation seems to have focused on now-delinquent director Dudu Myeni’s reign as chair.

In 2009, she was appointed as a nonexecutive director, becoming acting group chair from 2012 to 2015, when she was officially appointed. She remained chair until 2017.

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With Myeni on the throne, SAA lost R16.844 billion and was repeatedly bailed out by taxpayers.

That suggests about 22.7% of SAA’s losses at the time were pocketed illicitly.

Myeni, an ANC cadre, was chair of the Jacob Zuma Foundation at roughly the same time.

Myeni declared a delinquent director in 2017

She was declared a delinquent director in 2017 after the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) took legal action against her.

The SIU investigation started in 2020 after it found sufficient evidence to justify a large-scale probe into alleged irregularities at the airline.

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Its mandate was far reaching and included several broad-based black economic empowerment procurement practices and initiatives through to staff rebate travel.

Dubious dealings included invoices totalling R17 million for aircraft parts which previously had a price tag of less than half of what was paid.

SAA Technical sold off ground power units at more than R5 million less than the market price, and then hired them back at inflated prices.

Myeni swapped an Airbus A330 wide body order for the smaller A320; Airbus refunded R824 million in preorder payments and securities, but the money is missing.

Current and former employees and board members, law firms and businesses liable for prosecution

The SIU identified current and former employees and board members, law firms and businesses who are liable for prosecution.

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It is also investigating anomalies in the proposed Takatso Consortium takeover of SAA.

In an apparent looting spree, one SAA employee signed off on a request for a quote for the supply of avionic components. The same staffer owned the company awarded the tender.

One SAA board member apparently took an R800 000 loan from an SAA Technical supplier and subsequently awarded that supplier contracts worth more than R6 million.

A further R71 million passed through an attorney’s bank account and was paid to SAA staff and board members for the provision of what seem to be fictitious legal services.

“Buck by buck is how SAA was fuc*ed,” said a former executive who did not want to be named, but worked closely with Myeni. “They stripped it of everything, absolutely everything.”

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‘Horror story of gross and excessive plundering’

Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse chief executive Wayne Duvenage said: “It reads like a horror story of gross and excessive plundering of one of South Africa’s leading and proud state-owned entities.”

“This is why SAA has sucked up R38.1 billion in taxpayer-funded bailouts since April 2018. This is why the airline collapsed, resulting in the retrenchment of thousands of staff and leaving legitimate contractors unpaid.”

“This is the result of inadequate ministers who appointed inadequate, disastrous directors, who, in turn, appear to have protected and nurtured certain staff members who siphoned billions of rands out of the airline.”

“This is the result of successive parliaments which failed to watch over SAA for years.”

The DA’s Alf Lees said: “The incredible thing is that apparently none of those guilty of fraud and corruption have yet been convicted and whilst some of the corrupt cadres have ridden off into the sunset with their ill-gotten gains, there are still some employed at SAA.”

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