The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has cautiously welcomed the appointment of a new board for State-owned South African Airways (SAA), but is seriously concerned about the reappointment of Dudu Myeni as chairperson. “A number of significant and questionable actions combined with loss making performances have taken place under Myeni’s watch, which has cost the taxpayer several billion rands in bailouts over recent years,” stated Outa in its press release on Friday.

“We believe Myeni should be held accountable and largely responsible for the poor governance and performance issues that have transpired at SAA over the past few years,” stated Outa chairperson Wayne Duvenhage. “It is a pity that government did not seize the opportunity to remove her from the board.”

“We believe that profitability is only possible with the appointment of suitably talented executive directors to achieve the professional and competitive outputs required of SAA,” he said. “Sadly, the past board has succeeded in purging the airline of excellent senior managers and the current board will have to work hard to restore the public’s confidence in this brand.”

The organisation urged the new board to reappoint senior managers who had been suspended by the previous board. Outa maintained that these managers had been “suspended for standing their ground against the questionable conduct of the previous board”. One of these suspended senior managers had recently been cleared of all the charges made against him and the organisation was confident that the other senior managers concerned would likewise be totally cleared.

The group also called on the new board to act to expose corruption and maladministration at SAA. “A thorough review of many contracts should be undertaken and note should be taken of the findings from the 2015 Ernst & Young audit, which will go a long way to shining some light on this scourge within the airline,” asserted Outa legal affairs director Ivan Herselman. “The influencing of contract appointments which are not in the best interest of the airline, is an extremely serious matter and those found guilty of such behaviour should be held accountable, with the necessary corrective action applied.”

The fact that SAA now has a new board will not halt Outa’s own investigations into “the serious transgressions and other management issues at SAA”. In addition to continuing its own enquiries, the organisation urged the new board to employ all its powers to eliminate corruption from the inside of SAA.