DA welcomes Hawks investigation into SAA as a step in the right direction

2 December 2015

The DA welcomes the Hawks decision to investigate South African Airways’ (SAA) financial losses and gross mismanagement. Not only is this a step in the right direction to fixing SAA’s financial crisis, but this reaffirms that even the Hawks think that SAA Chairperson, Dudu Myeni’s tenure at SAA has been nothing short of calamitous and worthy of criminal investigation.

The DA has called for Myeni to be removed from her post where she has led SAA from crisis to crisis, and now that a criminal investigation is open she must at least be immediately suspended pending the outcome of the Hawks investigation.

Myeni’s presence and her brand of political meddling in every aspect of SAA will expose the Hawks probe to manipulation and in so doing cast a cloud over the credibility of the Hawks’ findings. The DA will also appeal to the Hawks to conduct their probe expediently to get to the bottom of the criminality of senior leadership at the airline, so that the mess at SAA can meet with necessary interventions. 

The Hawks investigation is reported to primarily focus on corruption and the irregular closures’ of routes by SAA, which are two critical issues at the airline which we welcome being probed. Surprisingly, the Hawks took it upon themselves to investigate SAA.

The Hawks investigation should reveal how SAA was able to hemorrhage R4.7 billion in just one year, by exposing the corrupt mismanagement widely reported on.

While the DA has always held that the National Carrier needs to be privatized; this investigation is likely to strengthen the call for its privatization so that it may recapitalize, become politically independent, and become profitable of its own accord without government bailouts at billions of taxpayer Rands.

Myeni’s leadership, or lack thereof, has seen the destabilisation of SAA to a point where eight CEO’s have submitted their resignations and the parastatal is surviving through government bailouts - at the taxpayers expense. The DA will not rest until South African’s are relieved of the burdensome parastatal and a new SAA Chairperson is appointed. 

The DA will continue to be proactive in seeking accountability for mismanaged state-owned entities. We believe SAA should be a benefit to the South African economy and its people, not a burden.

Issued by Natasha Mazzone, Shadow Minister of Public Enterprises, DA, 2 December 2015