Chairwoman Cheryl Carolus and six others have resigned from the SAA board, a Business Day report says.
The resignations follow a decision by Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba to cancel SAA’s AGM this week and his request to Parliament for a two-month postponement of the tabling of its annual report.
Of SAA’s 14-member board eight have resigned so far, the report says.
According to Business Day, Carolus said on Thursday night that it was “with a lot of careful thought and consideration” that she had taken this “extraordinary” step.
“There has been a breakdown in the relationship with the shareholder. I thought we had agreed on a strategy. I’m finding it frustrating that this notion continues to exist that there is no strategic vision on the table at SAA.
“After careful thought I also decided to resign, along with other members of the board. These are just the people who indicated to me that they will resign,” Carolus said, suggesting that there could be more resignations.
The board members who told Carolus they were leaving with her are Bonang Mohale, David Lewis, Jabulani Ndlovu, Louis Rabbets, Margaret Whitehouse and Teddy Daka.
The first board member to go, Russel Loubser, resigned with immediate effect on Wednesday, citing a lack of support from the Department of Public Enterprises - the airline’s shareholder.
Earlier this year, it emerged that SAA was looking for up to R6-billion in extra funding from government. - IOL