Johannesburg - The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation has widened its probe to current and former SAA executives that it believes hold answers to the airline’s porous coffers.
Business Report has been reliably informed that the directorate, which is popularly known as the Hawks, has focused its attention on at least five current and past executives that have been implicated in some previous probes.
Sources familiar with the investigation said two of the executives were foreign nationals, who had been recruited on the basis that they had skills that were scarce in South Africa.
“There are certain individuals that are believed to hold key information to the investigation that is under way,” said a source.
“There is a great deal of assistance that they can offer to the investigation.”
Investigators
Business Report can reveal that SAA board of directors and senior executives met eight senior investigators last Thursday, who were led by General Sylvia Ledwaba, the head of organised crime, and Brigadier Nyameka Xaba, who heads crimes against the state and tactical operations, at its Airways Park headquarters.
Insiders said while the meeting was “generally cordial”, the investigators seemed interested in information contained in the ENSafrica and EY audits that contained damning findings against some of the managers.
“They were very professional and had particular interest in certain names that were coming up,” said the insider.
“They were given as much information as possible and now it is up to them to decide on what next to do.”
Hawks spokesman Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi confirmed the meeting, but said: “It is not in our interest to speak to the media about our investigations.”
According to the sources, the investigation is also expected to look into allegations that some executives played a role in the collapse of two SAA routes to Durban last year that were subsequently passed on to Mango, and the SAA route to Dakar, Senegal, which is due to be closed in February.
In what the sources described as a bizarre turn of events, SAA was left to foot the fuel bill for the Durban flights, while Mango pocketed the money generated from ticket sales.
The cancellation of the Durban flights is said to have happened under the watch of former acting chief executive Nico Bezuidenhout.
“It was rather strange that we were advised that the routes could not bring income to SAA, while the airline was always fully booked to and from Durban,” said the source.
“But the figures that were given to motivate for the closure of the routes appeared to have been deliberately doctored to give a wrong impression on the load factor from the route.”
The investigation would look into alleged collusion by the executives to collapse certain local and overseas routes without following proper procedures.
Two months ago, the board launched an investigation through ENSafrica into alleged misrepresentation and another probe by EY auditors uncovered major irregularities, which cost the airline R648 million the first six months of the current financial year.
Suspended
The investigations resulted in charges being brought against suspended chief commercial officer Sylvain Bosc and former chief financial officer Wolf Meyer, who subsequently resigned when the board wanted to institute disciplinary proceedings against him.
Another source said some of the executives under scrutiny were alleged to have been fingered into the collapse of SAA’s profitable routes as well as the disappearance of Harvard North American Aviation aircraft, which are owned by SAA Technical, but are used by the SAA apprentice school for training.
The source said only two of the aircrafts could be accounted for while others seem to have disappeared.
BUSINESS REPORT