Government concerned about SAA
2012-10-12 08:40
Pretoria - Cabinet has noted with concern the developments that have unfolded at South African Airways (SAA), the South African government news agency reports.
"Cabinet has noted with concern the developments that have unfolded with the resignation of CEO Siza Mzimela and some of the executive management of the national carrier, SAA," Acting Minister for Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Richard Baloyi said on Thursday.
He was briefing media on Cabinet's meeting this week.
At the end of last month, eight members of the SAA board resigned, including the Chairperson of the SAA Board Cheryl Carolus, Russell Loubser, Bonang Mohale, Louis Rabbets, Jabulani Ndhlovu, David Lewis, Teddy Daka and Maggie Whitehouse.
Earlier this week, Mzimela announced her resignation through a letter sent to SAA staff. She had headed up SAA since 24 February 2010.
Baloyi said this came at a point when Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba was finalising the development of the sustainable long term vision for the national carrier.
Last week, newly appointed SAA board chairperson Vuyisile Kona told SAnews that the integrity of SAA would continue to be a priority, while much focus would be put on fine-tuning operations at the airline.
Kona was appointed following the immediate resignation of eight members of the previous board.
In the mean time Tourism Update reports that Kona is looking to reinstate SAA's international flights from Cape Town.
Kona said he was struggling to understand how the decision to suspend flights from Cape Town to London was made under previous management of the airline during an interview on Cape Talk's Keno Kamies radio show on October 10.
He said it would not be easy to reinstate direct flights as SAA had sold the Heathrow slot, but said he was trying to understand what Cape Town's flight requirements were. Similar talks were taking place with authorities in KZN.
SAA axed its Cape Town-Heathrow flights in August citing unprofitability of the route and the need to strengthen its Johannesburg hub as the reasons.
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