Efforts by South African Airways' recently appointed chief executive Coleman Andrews to wipe out corruption in the airline could lead to a violent backlash. Meanwhile, SAA has dismissed concerns that corruption within its maintenance division is affecting safety.
Andrews and his cargo manager have been given bodyguards after receiving death threats following the clampdown on corruption. Last year, the SAA boss instigated internal investigations, after which the airline's freight division was restructured and six senior employees removed from their posts.
Criminal charges have been brought against a number of unnamed former SAA staff members for alleged theft and overbilling on domestic freight charges.
Andrews, a US citizen, has moved to quash local press reports that passenger safety was being compromised by the theft of aircraft spares from its maintenance base at Johannesburg. The reports claimed that a syndicate was smuggling new engine parts to Mozambique for sale on the black market. Andrews says SAA had been aware of the thefts and suspects had been detained. "SAA's aircraft are safe," he stresses.
Andrews told a parliamentary committee in late February that cleaning up corruption and theft were part of his strategy to bring the ailing airline around in time for partial privatisation.
He said SAA would announce a sharply reduced loss for the year to the end of March, after losing R247 million ($40 million) in the first half of the year. He expected the airline to break even and possibly to make R50 million ($8.1 million) profit in the current six months.
The airline has begun cutting up to 1,100 workers as part of an internal restructuring. Previous management had planned to cut up to 3,000 jobs. Many employees have been asked to reapply for their positions, and in some cases, job descriptions have been altered. Air crew and technical positions are not affected.
Source: Flight International
