There’s a leadership crisis at SAA: Pilots:Tuesday 17 November 2015. SAA Chairperson Dudu Myeni has admitted there are problems between the airline and its pilots. (SABC) Pilots of South African Airways (SAA) have voted overwhelmingly in favour of a vote of no confidence in both the chair and non-executive directors of the board. This comes as a financial situation at SAA still remains in the spotlight with the controversial Airbus deal and possible breaches of certain legislation. Speaking on AM Live, SAA Pilot Association’s John Harty says there is a leadership crisis at lower and higher level.
Harty says the airliner has huge concerns around procurement issues, cooperate governance and there are only three directors. He also accused the chairperson, Dudu Myeni of bad-mouthing the pilots at Parliament and claiming that they are the root cause of problems. Click below to listen to the full interview: There’s a leadership crisis at SAA: Pilots:Tuesday 17 November 2015. SAA, Airbus likely to meet soon over plans to revise deal:Monday 30 November 2015. It is understood that the Airbus recently gave the embattled national carrier “a few weeks” to put forward concrete plans for a revised deal.
(SABC) Airbus and SAA executives may meet this week for a first face-to-face discussion to talk about the details of the airline’s hopes to renegotiate its leasing transaction with the European manufacturer, sources said on Monday. It is understood that Airbus recently gave the embattled national carrier “a few weeks” to put forward concrete plans for a revised deal after the SAA board made several vague and varying suggestions, of which aspects relating to the introduction of a third party would not pass muster with European authorities. The attempts to re-open negotiations earned SAA a stern letter of warning from the director-general of finance, Lungisa Fuzile, of potential penalties.
The memorandum was quoted by Democratic Alliance MP David Maynier in the National Assembly on Thursday. SAA retracts statement on CCO’s suspension :Saturday 21 November 2015. SAA says it did not mean to tarnish the image of it's Chief Commercial Officer. (SABC) South African Airways (SAA) has retracted an earlier media statement announcing the suspension of its Chief Commercial Officer, Sylvain Bosc. SAA says Bosc had not been informed of their decision. The Airline says Bosc is yet to receive notification of the disciplinary enquiry and formal complaints arising from such suspension. He was reportedly being suspended as a result of serious allegations relating to an alleged misrepresentation made by him to the Board in respect of the Abu Dhabi route.
The national carrier says it did not mean to tarnish Bosc's image in the earlier statement. Earlier, the airline said the step followed a forensic investigation by ENSAfrica into allegations through the Deloittes Tip Off hotline. SAA concedes its dire situation, denies insolvency:Wednesday 25 November 2015. The airline has a third Acting Chief Executive in less than 12 months. (SABC) The South African Airways (SAA) has admitted that the company is in a dire situation, but denied that it was technically insolvent. This comes a day after Treasury said it had not yet made a decision regarding the company's application to restructure its lease agreement with Airbus.
This comes as the plan to restructure the deal with Airbus will collapse previous agreements and trigger financial obligations on the part of SAA. Last week SAA submitted a section 54 application for the deal to be restructured. At the heart of this latest battle at SAA is the board's aim to restructure the around R6 billion leasing deal it has with Airbus. In 2014, the SAA board then decided to terminate this agreement and instead upgrade the remaining 10 - which were due to delivered from the second quarter of 2015 - for five bigger airplanes that are more fuel efficient.
SAA Chief Commercial Officer, Sylvain Bosc suspended:Saturday 21 November 2015. SAA Chief Commercial Officer, Sylvain Bosc. (LinkedIn: Sylvain Bosc) The South African Airways (SAA) has suspended its Chief Commercial Officer Sylvain Bosc. The airline says the step followed a forensic investigation by ENSAfrica into allegations through the Deloittes Tip Off hotline. Airline spokesperson Tlali Tlali says the tip-off had enough substance to suggest that Bosc doctored the numbers for Abu Dhabi to favour the opening of the route and sold SAA out.
“The allegations really refer to a business case that was presented to the board of directors by Mr. “He was presenting it as a motivated document that suggests that it will be in the best interests of SAA to operate a route between JHB and Abu Dhabi wherein it was discovered that he may have engineered information,” he says. Meanwhile last week, SAA pilots voted overwhelmingly in favour of a vote of no confidence in both the chair and non-executive directors of the board. There are problems between SAA and pilots: Myeni:Tuesday 17 November 2015. SAA's cabin crew threatened to strike, last week. (SABC) South African Airways (SAA) Chairperson Dudu Myeni has admitted there are problems between the airline and its pilots. This follows last week’s threats by the cabin crew to strike. Myeni says she wants a good relationship with the pilots, however, not at the expense of issues that need to be confronted including the reality of unaffordable salaries and other transformation issues.
In an interview with the SABC, Myeni announced some of her plans to deal with the concerns. The reason why they were unhappy it was because we spoke about the cost pilots salaries in Parliament "Today we want to see their contribution in terms of development of black pilots. Myeni says, "I’m still going to put a structure together or a task team that is going to give me a proper audit of how many women, how many black women, how many black women, how many black pilots in general have been given an opportunity since 1994. " SAA chair framed: Report:Sunday 1 March 2015. SAA chairperson Dudu Myeni is reportedly a victim of an offshore bank account hoax. (SABC) SA Airways (SAA) chairperson, Dudu Myeni, was the victim of a fake offshore bank account hoax to get her fired, various Sunday newspapers report. Forged documents were apparently leaked to various officials that showed overseas bank accounts at BNP Paribas bank in Paris and Bank Austria in Vienna, attributed to Myeni, with funds of approximately R240 million collectively in them.
"The authorities are aware of the forgeries," George Van Niekerk of Edward Nathan Sonnenbergs told the Sunday Times. He said the law firm had been tasked by the SAA board to investigate the origin and production of the fraudulent bank statements and other documentation. Both of the banks in question confirmed that the accounts were fake. In the emails he apparently says the documentation was given to him by "an informer who is normally bang on the mark. " SAA mum on retrenchment details:Monday 9 March 2015. SAA says it is re-examining every aspect of the business in order to return the company to relative stability in the context of its 90 Day Action Plan(SAA) Cash-strapped South African Airways (SAA) declined to say on Monday how many workers the national carrier plans to retrench.
"At this point there is no indication of actual figure on the number heads that could be affected," spokesperson Tlali Tlali said in a statement. Reducing staff numbers would be a "consultative process" with all "stakeholders" in the company. He said the 90-day action plan was implemented towards the end of last year with the intention to bring the airline back to implementing the milestones of its long-term turnaround strategy (LTTS). "In order to return the company to relative stability in the context of the 90 Day Action Plan, SAA has had to re-examine every aspect of the business," Tlali said. "This has already resulted in substantial savings and stronger governance. SAA CEOs application to be heard in Labour Court:Thursday 9 April 2015. The suspended Chief Executive Officer of South African Airways (SAA) Monwabisi Kalawe, will have his application heard in the Labour Court in Johannesburg on Thursday.
Kalawe wants the court to nullify disciplinary hearings that SAA has instituted against him. He was appointed in 2013 to implement SAA's turnaround plan. Kalawe was suspended last year pending a probe into serious allegations of misconduct. He has described his suspension as unlawful and unfair and thus wants the court to stop the disciplinary proceedings against him. Kalawe is facing several charges. Nico Bezuidenhout has been acting SAA Chief since Kalawe's suspension. SAA in talks with Air China, Hainan Airlines- Bloomberg:Thursday 16 April 2015. Government is considering a strategic partner for SAA. (SABC) Struggling state-run airline South African Airways (SAA) is in talks with Air China Ltd and HNA Group's Hainan Airlines Co to set up a West Africa-based hub or even sell a stake in the company, Bloomberg reported citing people familiar with the matter.
An outright purchase of a stake seems unlikely, although the talks may yield deeper technology cooperation between the carriers, Bloomberg said. Establishment of a West Africa-based hub would help counter competition from fast-growing Ethiopian Airlines Enterprise and Kenya Airways Ltd, while providing access to the continent that feeds China with most of its natural resources requirement to keep its economy running, Bloomberg said. Last year, South Africa's Minister of Public Enterprises Lynne Brown said the government would consider a strategic partner for SAA, after injecting the airline with two bail outs worth R10 billion.
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