Cape Town - Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba must be held accountable for the evidently illegal decision to extend the appointment of South African Airways (SAA) board chairwoman Dudu Myeni and for the billions in losses as well as the funding crisis that has been allowed to continue at SAA, the Democratic Alliance said on Saturday.
The DA welcomed the intervention of the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) which confirmed the DA's view that Gigaba’s decision to extend Myeni’s term as chairwoman of the SAA board was illegitimate, DA spokesman Alf Lees said.
"Accordingly, we are also of the belief that Ms Myeni is technically no longer the chair of the board and that any board decisions taken since the 1st of September 2017 must be viewed as irregular and unenforceable," he said.
Gigaba had failed to take the robust action required to save SAA and stop the ongoing losses and consequent taxpayer bail outs. SAA was a complete shambles and Gigaba’s failure to remove one of the main obstacles to progress at the airline showed that SAA was clearly not a priority for him.
The intervention of the CIPC in Myeni's extended appointment would be useful to parliament's finance standing committee in dealing with its resolution that requested Gigaba to review his decision to extend the appointment and to provide the basis on which he made the decision.
"When all is said and done, minister Gigaba must be held accountable for the evidently illegal decision to extend the appointment of Ms Myeni as the SAA board chair and more importantly, for the billions in losses as well as that funding crisis that has been allowed to continue at SAA," Lees said.