CHARLES MOLELE
THE National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) has accused Public Enterprises Minister, Pravin Gordhan, of making a clandestine appointment of a new board of the South African Airways (SAA) without informing the public or the ANC.
On Tuesday, Gordhan announced the appointment of former tourism minister Derek Hanekom as non-executive director and interim chair of the SAA along with a new interim board on Monday.
Professor John Lamola was retained as an interim non-executive director and will serve as interim CEO.
The interim board is effective from 15 April and will serve until the introduction of the national carrier’s new strategic equity partner, the Takatso Consortium, which controversially purchased the airline for R51.
In a media statement on Tuesday, Irvin Jim, General Secretary of NUMSA, said the union has information from a credible source, who shall remain anonymous, that Gordhan has sworn the entire board to secrecy, in order to protect his alleged corruption.
“We condemn the ANC government and its top leadership for the fact that they have allowed Minister Gordhan to do as he pleases, and that he is allowed to run rogue, and dispense of State-Owned Entities (SOE), without following the law. Gordhan never accounts to anyone, not even Parliament or SCOPA, or the governing party which deployed him to that role,” said Jim.
“As things stand, SAA has been totally undervalued, for the sake of enabling this corruption. The last SAA audited report ending March 2017 says that SAA’s total assets were valued at R14 594 billion. Government has paid off all the debts of SAA, but it is apparently valued at R3 billion. What happened to all of SAA’s assets? Either these assets were disposed of by the business rescue practitioner, or by Pravin Gordhan himself.”
Jim further said that NUMSA was disturbed by the news that the Takatso Consortium appointed its own valuator who valued the assets of the airline at R3 billion.
He added that NUMSA was also reliably informed that Gordhan is gunning for the head of the SAA’s interim Chief Financial Officer Fikile Mhlonthlo and wants him removed.
“We can only guess, if this is true, that Gordhan is doing so cover up his dirty tactics and Fikile must be an obstacle to this. We condemn anti-governance minister Gordhan who is known for destroying all entities under his portfolio, and still has the audacity to blame state capture for the collapse of organizations under his leadership. SA Express, SAA, Eskom, Denel, and Transnet are all collapsing and he is to blame for the rot. The fish rots from the head, and minister Gordhan is rotten to the core.”
The new board members are:
- Derek Hanekom (who is the board chairperson)
- Dumisani Sangweni
- Fatima Ghani (who is also on the Eskom board)
- Mahlubi Mazwai
- Fundi Sithebe
- Wrenelle Stander (former CEO of Comair)
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