The Minister of Public Enterprises, Lynne Brown, and the Minister of Finance, Nhlanhla Nene, met the Board of South African Airways (SAA) in Johannesburg on Monday.
In the first part of a two-part exchange, the ministers addressed the full Board in their capacity as representatives of the Shareholder – the South African Government. This was followed by a discussion between Minister Brown and the non-executive members of the Board on recent events.
Minister Brown told the full Board that, as a matter of urgency, she required it:
- to finalise the airline’s financial statements,
- to meet all the requirements for holding its Annual General Meeting [which needs to take place by no later than the end of April 2015],
- to make it possible for her to table the Integrated Report in Parliament as soon as possible and
- to appoint a turnaround specialists as soon as possible to set the airline on the path to profitability.
Minister Nene briefed the Board on the state of the fiscus and Government’s view that State Owned Companies, like SAA, needed to move rapidly to a position in which they could live off their balance sheets. The Board’s main task was to take the airline to a position where it was financially sustainable as soon as possible.
In the second part of the meeting, the Board confirmed what it had reported in writing to Minister Brown last week: that it had lifted the suspension of CEO Monwabisi Kalawe retrospectively.
“As a result, there are several consequential procedural matters that are being dealt with between the Board and the CEO and it will be inappropriate for me to comment until these have been concluded,” Minister Brown said.
The Board requested the Department of Public Enterprises and the National Treasury to work closely with it in order to accelerate steps it wishes to take to turn around the fortunes of the airline. The Ministers approved on the understanding that the autonomy of the Company and the oversight roles of the departments would not be affected in any way.
Enquiries:
Colin Cruywagen
Cell: 082 377 9916
E-mail: colin.cruywagen@dpe.gov.za
