SAA chair stays, 2 others on board

Cape Town - Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown has decided to stick by Duduzile Myeni as chairwoman of the embattled South African Airways board despite the fact that the minister admits it is struggling to be "a going concern".

She also announced on Thursday the appointment of Dr John Tambi and Anthony Dixon to the board.

She told a media conference at parliament on Thursday afternoon that cabinet had approved the retention of Myeni and Yakhe Kwinana.

She noted that with the two new members, the board would be six-strong as the CEO and CFO are also members of the board.

READ: Four SAA board members quit

Although she acknowledged that the board had been riddled with factionalism, she had retained Myeni and Kwinana for reasons of “institutional knowledge”.

But a candid minister said that it was a matter of “damned if you do, damned if you don’t”.

She said the board had been a little unwieldy with 14 persons serving on it. When the board ended its term all institutional memory was lost.

“What I wanted was something more agile and mobile with harder skills and including that institutional memory. Ms Myeni and Ms Kwinana are definitely the longest serving board members.” They had served on the board since Cheryl Carolus had been chairperson, Brown said.
 
Asked if it was appropriate to retain the current chair, who had been accused of leading a faction, Brown acknowledged it had been a difficult decision.

“If (one) chose another way… it would probably be supporting another faction. I have tried to make a decision that gives me the best skill on the board and I think I do need the institutional memory.”

When asked how the SAA was staying in the sky as government had refused to bail it out, she said it was living off guarantees from the state. “They get the guarantee from the state, then they go to the banks.”

READ: No bailouts for SAA, Sapo

Asked if the SAA would survive till February – the time of the National Budget – she hesitated and then said: “We must try for them to survive to February… they are a state-owned company.”