{"id":196194,"date":"2017-09-03T07:28:02","date_gmt":"2017-09-03T05:28:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=196194"},"modified":"2017-09-03T07:28:02","modified_gmt":"2017-09-03T05:28:02","slug":"saa-woes-deepen-as-myeni-vows-to-stay-on-as-chair-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/196194\/saa-woes-deepen-as-myeni-vows-to-stay-on-as-chair-report\/","title":{"rendered":"SAA woes deepen as Myeni vows to stay on as chair: report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Failing state-run airline South African Airways will continue to struggle to secure independent funding as its controversial chair, Dudu Myeni, vows to remain in her position until the end of president Jacob Zuma’s term in 2019.<\/p>\n

Citing senior officials at the airline, the City Press reports<\/a><\/strong> that Myeni has told those closest to her that she intends on staying on as SAA board chair, despite her contract having ended this past week.<\/p>\n

Myeni is seen as a pariah by South Africa’s banks, who are loathe to lend any more money to SAA while she remains chairwoman. Myeni is said to the be the one responsible for the airline’s sorry state of affairs.<\/p>\n

The chair enjoys the protection of president Jacob Zuma, who is a known friend and ally, with her powerful position brought to light in her dealings with previous finance ministers.<\/p>\n

It was speculated that her conflict with Nhlanhla Nene – where he refused to give any more money to SAA while Myeni was still in charge – was one of the reasons he lost his job on the infamous 9\/12 of 2015.<\/p>\n

The same conflict persisted with former finance minister Pravin Gordhan.<\/p>\n

Myeni is also chairperson of the President Jacob Zuma Foundation and the Mhlathuze Water Authority Board. She was appointed acting SAA chairperson in September 2012 before the position became permanent in June 2013.<\/p>\n

According to the City Press, South Africa’s banks are putting pressure on finance minister Malusi Gigaba to hold true to his word and get rid of Myeni now that her contract is up – however sources within SAA said there is pressure ‘from elsewhere’ for her to stay.<\/p>\n

Banks are calling in outstanding debt at the airline, while others are refusing to pay out more loans until a proper executive team is in place – sans Myeni.<\/p>\n

Gigaba had to bail out the airline to the tune of R2.2 billion last month, with the finance department seeking to fund a total of R10 billion to pay off its debts.<\/p>\n

Myeni was asked to stat on at SAA until its AGM, which was rescheduled to some time in November. Insiders said that the AGM will be further delayed to 2018, and Myeni’s contract will likely be extended to 2019.<\/p>\n

You can read the full story in the City Press for 3 September<\/em><\/p>\n

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Read:\u00a0Myeni\u2019s \u2018highest order\u2019 delinquency is killing SAA<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Failing state-run airline South African Airways will continue to struggle to secure independent funding as its controversial chair, Dudu Myeni, vows to remain in her position until the end of president Jacob Zuma’s term in 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":135181,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-196194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196194"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":196198,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196194\/revisions\/196198"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}