The opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) says it is crucial that the Public Protector investigate SAA Chairperson, Dudu Myeni’s involvement in the deal to ensure “that state funds are not being abused and that state entities are not being as a fiefdom by the ANC elite. In the past, we have seen Myeni make dubious unilateral decisions to introduce an unknown company into an Airbus lease deal, which has links to President Zuma.”
The DA’s Deputy Shadow Minister of Finance, Alf Lees, says it is no secret that SAA is in complete financial meltdown squarely attributable to Ms Myeni. She continues to delay the release of the financial statements because of this.
It is alleged that the awarding of this tender was rigged from the beginning. Confined tenders allow state-owned entities to award contracts to single bidders when it is considered impractical to follow an open bidding process due to an urgent need.
Lees says it is clear that the “urgency” excuse given by the SAA Board for not going out to tender is pure fabrication, as the need for working capital to replace maturing loans was known years in advance. The process was started by ex-CFO Mr Wolf back in 2015 but was stopped by Myeni who objected to the board not being involved.
The financial health of SAA will be restored when we see the back of Ms Myeni at the helm and when the privatisation of SAA non-performing assets are privatised. The DA will fight tirelessly to achieve these objectives, which will bring about a new prosperous horizon for the downtrodden airliner.
