[ad_1]
Former SAA technical board chair and SAA board member Yakhe Kwinana resumes her testimony at the Zondo Commission on November 3, 2020 in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Commission is reported to have heard more testimonies related to aviation. (Photo by Gallo Images / Papi Morake)
Former SAA board member Yakhe Kwinana received an onboard ethics lesson at the State Capture Commission on Tuesday. Unfortunately, it was more than a decade late after Kwinana had already wreaked havoc by applying his alternative ethics on the bankrupt airline.
Former SAA board member and SAA Technical (SAAT) chairman Yakhe Kwinana was justifying how he went on a luxury trip to AAR Aviation’s headquarters in Chicago while the company was bidding for a SAAT contract when the President of State Capture Inquiry, Raymond Zondo.
“Mrs. Kwinana, what you are telling me is seriously that, in your judgment, there would have been absolutely nothing wrong with you as a board member who would make a decision on a tender in respect of which AAR had submitted a tender. , so that you go on a trip abroad to their facilities without the knowledge of other bidders and let them bring you and eat you there.
“You say there is nothing wrong with that?” Zondo asked.
Kwinana claimed that it was not influenced by private jet flights and limousine travel, yet SAA’s procurement policy was so stringent that such a conflict of interest could not influence a contract decision at the time it came to. board.
He admitted that he knew that the tender had been announced and was not finalized at the time of his trip. Kwinana was a member of the SAA board between 2009 and 2016.
Around the time of their travels, SAAT in 2016 decided to withdraw the bidding process that AAR and others were bidding for and instead sign an agreement with AAR and local company JM Aviation for maintenance and components. The deal was worth more than a billion rand.
Zondo criticized Kwinana’s belief that she could go on a trip with a company while bidding on a contract.
The Vice President of the Supreme Court said: “I think Ms. Kwinana, frankly, the processes in terms of who are appointed as board members of public companies need to be reviewed, if that’s what you think, and you were board member, you ‘If you are a certified public accountant, you think there would be nothing wrong with that. So there is something wrong with the appointment process. “
Kwinana was accused of being an evasive and false witness and was repeatedly questioned about inconsistencies in her testimony.
He said his trip to Chicago could not have swayed the SAAT board’s opinion on the contract, stating that the company’s executive-led procurement policies could sufficiently identify beneficial offers and reject candidates who do not. qualify.
On Monday, however, Kwinana explained how the SAA board canceled a contract agreed by the company executive without considering the relevant facts, showing how the board can intervene regardless of what the executive decides.
Zondo lectured her on the importance of maintaining a distance between a company’s executive and its board, something she struggled to understand.
I tell you that you have been dishonest with this commission.
Kwinana was repeatedly questioned about her relationship with JM Aviation boss Vuyisile Ndzeku. He received R4.3 million from Ndzeku and his companies to invest in cryptocurrencies and currencies at the end of 2016, after he resigned from SAA.
She struggled to explain the transactions and benefits to Ndzeku, who she claimed was completely separate from the SAA agreements. When asked to explain the benefits his company gave Ndzeku for investing in forex, crypto and property, Kwinana ran into trouble. She drew on the complexities and uncertainties involved in such investments.
But in October 2015, Kwinana and SAA President Dudu Myeni reportedly held a meeting with SAA’s chief procurement officer, Dr. Masimba Dhawa, to pressure him to sign awards that support SOE’s commitment to spending the 30% of acquisitions in black-owned companies, including an agreement between SAA. and Swissport SA to provide ground and aviation services.
Ndzeku’s JM Aviation was Swissport’s local procurement partner.
When Dhawa, a Zimbabwean, resisted and said he felt uncomfortable signing irregular deals, Kwinana and Myeni allegedly threatened to advertise their work and said the EFF would soon come to protest foreigners like him who resisted the transformation.
“Definitely president, in this meeting, I was not there,” said Kwinana.
Days after the alleged meeting, he sent an email to his colleagues, saying that Dhawa was “hell-bent on sabotaging and derailing the transformation agenda of the current government in general and SAA in particular.”
He claimed that Dhawa may have resisted signing the agreements, including an attempt by SAA to force Engen to hand over 15% of its fuel contract to black-owned companies, because “its attitude may be based on the fact that it does not share the pain of the people of South Africa ”.
Zondo shook his head and wondered how Kwinana could claim that Dhawa could not relate to the struggles in South Africa while he, as a Zimbabwean, had suffered from white colonial oppression. Dhawa did not come to work the day he was told EFF would protest and soon left SAA, lost his home in South Africa and struggled to find work in Zimbabwe due to his tainted name.
Kwinana still claimed that she was never at the meeting with Dhawa, despite her own references to comments at that meeting.
Days after Dhawa was replaced, SAA pushed the deal with Swissport and signed it months later. The deal included huge benefits for JM Aviation. Kwinana allegedly planned the deal, which she denies.
“I tell you that you have been dishonest with this commission,” said test leader advocate Kate Hofmeyr.
After former President Jacob Zuma announced in 2015 that state-owned companies should spend 30% of acquisitions on black-owned companies, the SAA board decided to commit to the plan. But no law came into force to support it, and the Treasury in September 2015 told the SAA to drop its plan.
Kwinana said she did not push the 30% issue after the Treasury address, but she and the SAA board continued to pressure companies, such as Engen and Swissport, to give black-owned companies an additional portion of their shares. agreements, even if the companies were BEE compliant. Kwinana claimed that it was the companies’ own will.
According to the evidence in the face of the state capture investigation, it was a ruse. Kwinana clearly influenced the deals to be awarded to preferred vendors and accepted payments from those to whom the irregular deals were awarded.
Kwinana continued to deny the corruption allegations. He is expected to return to the commission to finish his testimony soon, but former SAA president Dudu Myeni is due to testify in the commission on Wednesday.
Myeni was recently declared a delinquent director by the North Gauteng Superior Court due to her leadership at SAA. DM
