Treasury sends Myeni crash landing in Airbus deal

21 December 2015

Tonight's announcement by National Treasury that the SAA Airbus swap agreement approved in July 2015 must be completed, is very good news for South Africa, but very bad news for SAA Chairperson Dudu Myneni. Tonight Minister Pravin Gordhan has stood up to Myeni's political manouvering, and has sent Myeni crash landing to the hard ground of reality.

The deal approved by Gordhan tonight gives SAA the financial respite it so desperately needs and also alleviates the continued drain on the national fiscus that SAA has become.

The elephant in the room however remains, and Dudu Myeni's politics is the elephant.  There can surely no longer be any element of doubt that under the leadership of Dudu Myeni, the National carrier will NOT succeed in turning itself into a successful entity.  Two different (but not successive) Finance Ministers have both found her suggested swap to be a dangerous choice for the airline and for South Africa's fiscus and under Myeni's watch the airline has found itself financially depleted and begging for Treasury handouts.

As South Africans we should all use our united voice to demand the immediate removal of Dudu Myeni as the Chairperson of SAA. Her close ties to President Zuma, and her political manouvering, and her design of fronting local companies for aircraft purchase agreements disqualify her from overseeing our national frag-carrier.

A full investigation into the financial chaos at the airline must be conducted and those who acted together with Myeni to hamper the turnaround of the airline must also be fired.  An expert in the aviation industry, not a political crony, must be employed as a matter of urgency to oversee the turnaround of the airline. 

Tonight Minister Gordhan has made a welcome decision, which shows that Dudu Myeni must go.

Issued by Natasha Mazzone, Shadow Minister of Public Enterprises, DA, 21 December 2015