Lawyer Themba Langa told the Business Day “we are going to sue her”.

This was reportedly because Carolus — who quit the SA Airways board last week — told the Business Times on September 30 that the SAA board had made progress in tackling labour, competition, fraud and corruption problems which the airline had “inherited from previous management”.

In the letter to Carolus, Langa said, on behalf of Ngqula: “We are of the view that reference to ’previous management’ was intended by you to imply management that operated under the leadership of our client.

“It is this false and unreasonable imputation that has caused us to write this correspondence to you.”  Langa said Carolus had until Tuesday to respond to the letter or pay Ngqula R40 million.

“She must withdraw and apologise or she must provide proof or we will sue her.”  The SAA board is currently suing Ngqula, who left the airline in 2009, to recover about R252 million from him in four separate claims following a forensic investigation by auditors KPMG.

SAA CEO Siza Mzimela and two other senior managers resigned from the airline this week, barely two weeks after most of the board also quit, saying there was a lack of support from its shareholder, the public enterprises department.