Rooivalk
Photo by: Duane Daws
The investigation into the conduct of three top officials of Denel suspended in September last year should be concluded by the end of June, said Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown on Wednesday.
Addressing members of the Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises, Brown said the three suspended officials – CEO Riaz Saloojee, CFO Fikile Mhlontlo and group company secretary Elizabeth Africa – asked for more time to give their input into the investigation.
Fin24 revealed the trio had been suspended in September 2015, following a tip-off. The suspensions came after Brown rotated the Denel board.Brown said there were discrepancies with a profit declaration previously. “The SOC (state-owned company) said they made a R1-billion clear profit, but it wasn’t. It was actually a large ring-fenced amount.
“The cash situation at Denel has however stabilised and the R850-million note brought to the market in the fourth quarter of the last financial year was over-subscribed, which showed the market had confidence in Denel.”
According to Brown, Denel is one of the hundred companies in the world people actually want to do business with.
The Rooivalk attack aircraft, she said, is highly successful in peacekeeping operations and Denel should be manufacturing a lot more of them.
In the medium term, Denel’s board will focus on improving cash and working capital management and opening new markets through strategic partnerships.
Other programmes Denel is working on include the Sara regional aircraft to address African air travel requirements and the midlife upgrade to the Rooivalk attack aircraft.
“The launch of the Rooivalk upgrade programme is a product of the deployment of the helicopter in a peacekeeping mission in DRC, where it acquitted itself quite well," she said. "These developments must be celebrated by all South Africans, as they show that Africa is playing its role in giving the world complex technological products,” Brown said.