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Cape Town – South African Airways (SAA) chairperson Dudu Myeni defended her former chief financial officer (CFO) who resigned this week, while the board’s audit chair said she recommended his contract not be renewed.
Myeni told parliament on Wednesday she was disappointed that CFO Wolf Meyer had decided to resign amid the national airline’s troubling financial situation.
“I am the one who gave him 110%,” she said. “It shocked me what happened. I am the one who was advocating for the extension of his contract.”
During the standing committee on finance, board member Yakhe Kwinana said she had recommended his contract not be renewed.
As chair of the audit committee, she wrote a letter to Myeni, recommending that SAA should not renew his contract that expired on 31 July 2015.
“For me as chair of risk and audit, I did not want his contract renewed,” she said. “I had a lot of reasons.”
One of her issues was that there were stations in Germany and Sao Paulo where money was not being deposited into the SAA account.
“Also, SAA’s challenges and its KPI (challenges) revolve around financial and procurement matters, which are headed by the CFO.”
However, the SAA chair said she suggested Ernst & Young conduct an investigation into the CFO.
Acting SAA CEO Musa Zwane said at the sitting that an acting CFO would be announced next week.
Opposition parties were not happy with answers that SAA brought to parliament and demanded them to come better prepared.
Economic Freedom Fighters MP Floyd Shivambu called for the whole board to be removed. “Get rid of these people and expedite the process of electing a new board,” he said. “The SAA board must fall.”
He said the leadership would result in the airline being grounded, “which will inconvenience all of us”.
“I don’t want to catch a bus to parliament,” he exclaimed.
