SAA's suspended CFO Phumeza Nhantsi implicated Dudu Myeni in her testimony at the state capture inquiry.
Image: Gallo Images / The Times / Alon Skuy. File photo
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Former SA Airways (SAA) chief financial officer Phumeza Nhantsi on Tuesday appeared before the state capture inquiry commission where she testified about finances and governance at the state-owned entity. 

Here is a summary of her testimony in five telling quotes.

Masotsha Mngadi, Dudu Myeni's interference

"Two days after I joined SAA, the chair of the board Miss Myeni gave me the numbers of Mr Mngadi. At the time at which I joined the SAA, the board and the executives were busy with the correspondence between the minister at the time about the swap deal. I didn't even have a clue about the swap deal but there was a letter that was needed to be prepared as a response to the minister of finance."

No formal appointment of Mngadi as SAA adviser

"When I made inquiries through Miss Khwinana, she told me that [Mngadi] is Myeni's person. I was making inquiries because there was another person who was an adviser and I understood that she was appointed through a process, so I was curious to understand how Mr Mngadi was then appointed."

Nhantsi alleged that Mngadi was not on the company's payroll, although he was heavily involved in the swap deal and served as an adviser to Dudu Myeni.

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Banks were anxious about SAA

"We had weekly meetings with the banks together with national Treasury, and in all those meetings the banks, both local and international, expressed anxiety. They wanted their exposure to be reduced and they even wrote to the DG of national Treasury, raising two issues on the company's performance which [they said] was deteriorating. Another issue was that of governance, they felt that there was no accountability."

In the dark about FDC 

"The formal communication between national Treasury and SAA is via the chairperson of the board. The Treasury would write to SAA. So, one of the reasons we engaged and didn't stop at the time, they never wrote to us and said FDC doesn't have a mandate."

Due diligence on FDC funding 

"I did not raise some concerns as I was supposed to hence I followed the process of getting the information we got on December 24 and if there was any challenge on this [SAA had assumed that FDC would either give us R14bn or R15bn]. I take the responsibility that I should have highlighted this and I didn't."


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