Former SAA board member and former SAA Technical board chairperson Yakhe Kwinana has told the state capture inquiry there was nothing wrong with her and executives being wined and dined by a US company bidding for a tender at the national carrier.
The US company, ARR Aviation, took an SAA delegation on a trip to Chicago while a tender evaluation process for a R1.3bn component contract they were bidding for was under way.
In the US, the SAA delegation, including Kwinana, was wined, dined and transported around in limousines and a private jet.
Kwinana on Tuesday insisted there was nothing wrong with her being part of the trip. Her defence was that the tender process had not reached board level, where she could have influenced it in favour of ARR.
She said she did not need the US firm to do “nice” things for her as she was financially capable of doing so herself.
“I do not regard it [the trip] as irregular because the only time the board knows about the tender is when it is on final approval,” said Kwinana.
“There are so many tenders at SAA and SAA Technical. Me, as a member of the board, I do not have a book where I write notifications that a tender is coming.
“When they transported me in a private jet, I did not consider that as a benefit at all. Even if I went to Chicago, if the bidder does not qualify, they do not qualify,” she said.
“I cannot be persuaded by being wined and dined by ARR. If I wanted to wine and dine, I would do it for myself.
“We did not get persuaded. The purpose of our trip was to confirm the resources they said they have on paper which we liked.”
Kwinana also denied that she, in cahoots with former SAA chairperson Dudu Myeni, pushed out former SAA head of procurement Masimba Dahwa and acting chief executive Thuli Mpshe, who refused to implement the 30% set aside for black business policy that was declared illegal by the National Treasury.
According to Kwinana, the controversial 30% set aside policy sought to give 30% of the value of contracts awarded to big white-owned businesses to small black-owned businesses in a progressive move to advance transformation.
If she had her way, she said, the percentage would have been higher to be in line with the country’s demographics.
“We did not implement the 30% set aside. We wrote to National Treasury and sought guidance on how to implement it. We tried to implement it before we were reprimanded by National Treasury,” said Kwinana.
Her testimony continues.
