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The tense relations between SAA’s board chairperson and pilots has reached breaking point.
City Press’ sister paper, Rapport, reports that at a special meeting tomorrow, the pilots will table a motion of no confidence in the airline’s board.
This comes after board chair Dudu Myeni has repeatedly blamed the pilots for the precarious financial position the airline finds itself in.
Tomorrow’s meeting is being called by the SAA branch of the Air Line Pilots’ Association of SA in Kempton Park. The association is expecting about 200 pilots to attend after a notice was sent on Thursday to ask all off-duty pilots to be present.
Although no one from the SAA branch was available for comment this week, union insiders said Myeni was undermining the authority of the pilots to such an extent that it was becoming a threat to flight safety.
A letter sent on Thursday to the director of civil aviation by pilots’ association chairperson Captain John Harty asked for “action” to be taken after Myeni “proactively created a negative impression of the SAA pilots in public, including statements made in Parliament and in a letter to all SAA employees”.
“Reckless statements and negative sentiments invited against pilots by the top leadership of an aviation company can surely only serve to encourage employees to flout this authority.
“This authority is now being put to the test, evidenced by a number of incidents in recent times. We believe it is not coincidental that these have arisen amid the culture of contempt sowed by the various statements and remarks the chairperson has made,” he wrote.
One of those alleged incidents occurred on October 16 when Myeni addressed a meeting of all SAA’s staff in the airline’s auditorium.
When the pilots raised their concerns, she allegedly answered each question in isiZulu. This was accompanied by the stomping of feet and laughing from those present who understood her.
All attempts to obtain an audio recording by pilots who failed to understand what she had said have failed so far.
After Myeni blamed pilots’ salaries for the airline’s problems in Parliament in September, Harty wrote in an open letter that said that even if SAA pilots flew for free, the airline would still not make a profit.
He wrote: “What she should have said was: ‘Mr chairman, SAA has soaked up billions of rands in bailouts over the years due to poor governance, a meddling shareholder and management that has resembled a children’s game of musical chairs.’”
Myeni also crossed swords with Minister of Finance Nhlanhla Nene over a transaction to acquire new Airbus planes for SAA.
SAA ordered the new fleet of aircraft in 2002 after which its management decided to change the purchase decision into a hiring arrangement.
In this way, SAA would have escaped a cancellation fine of R1.6 billion.
But Myeni decided to start negotiating with Airbus herself about buying the planes instead, and used a local third party as an intermediary.
Airbus felt this went against its financial management practices and, in light of this, asked SAA to pay the fine.
Nene met with the SAA board on Tuesday to try to iron out the mess.
A day before this meeting, SAA director Tony Dixon resigned, but Myeni allegedly withheld this from Nene.
Tlali Tlali, spokesperson for SAA, confirmed Dixon’s resignation and said Myeni had told Nene about it later.
The DA’s Natasha Mazzone asked Nene to probe Myeni’s behaviour – particularly the purchase of the planes, which is in conflict with National Treasury guidelines – as her actions were apparently at odds with the Public Finance Management Act.
“Myeni is brazenly intent on bulldozing the procurement of R5 billion worth of Airbus aircraft regardless of Treasury warning against the calamitous consequences this deal will have for the airline and the fiscus of the country,” wrote Mazzone.
SAA has already been given about R7 billion in state financial aid this year to help it solve its financial problems.
