- Former SAA group CEO Siza Mzimela was cross-examined at the Zondo Commission on Tuesday.
- She was grilled about allegations of what she described as a "grey area" in corporate governance during the tenure of former public enterprises minister Malusi Gigaba.
- An example of this was "interference" to get SAA to drop its route to Mumbai in favour of Jet Airways, which has links to the Gupta family.
During the period when South African Airways (SAA) fell under Malusi Gigaba's tenure as minister of public enterprises, there developed a "grey area" on what would ordinarily be the board's and management's duties, former SAA CEO Siza Mzimela told the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into State Capture on Tuesday.
During the virtual hearing, Mzimela was cross-examined by Gigaba's legal representative, Advocate Mandla Gumbi.
Mzimela first testified at the commission - chaired by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo - in June 2019. Her evidence related to the cancellation of SAA's Mumbai route.
Mzimela at the time stated that Gigaba failed to act to prevent SAA from losing the route, to the advantage of Jet Airways - an Indian airline founded by Naresh Goyal, which the Guptas used for the controversial flight that landed in the Waterkloof military airbase in Pretoria in 2013.
More recently, in June this year, Gigaba was led in evidence at the commission on various topics, including Mzimela's evidence. During his testimony, Gigaba denied conspiring to have SAA scrap its route from Johannesburg to Mumbai to aid the Gupta-linked airline.
'Grey area'
In her original testimony, Mzimela alluded that during Gigaba's tenure as minister, there was a "grey area" in terms of corporate governance. Gumbi wanted to know what Mzimela had meant by that.
"[It] was unusual was for a minister's advisor [Siyabonga Mahlangu] to get involved in issues which would ordinarily be reserved for the board and management at SAA," said Mzimela. "There was a blurring of lines. When a minister's advisor comes in and behaves in a certain way, I would have had to assume he comes with the minister's instruction."
She said this kind of behaviour would include Gigaba's advisor requesting information about issues that would not ordinarily fall within his scope, such as procurement and details about the Mumbai route, which would normally be an operational issue.
Mzimela was also asked about Gigaba and his advisor's behaviour during two meetings Gigaba had requested - and at which representatives of Jet Airways were present. Mzimela was "concerned" about Gigaba's "silence" during these meetings and taken aback by the behaviour of a representative from Jet Airways, which had links to the Gupta family.
Gigaba's silence
"Gigaba did not say anything when an individual from Jet Airways joined the meeting and [was] rude and loud and instruct[ed] SAA management what it should do - to just close the Mumbai route. That is unacceptable.
"I cannot say Gigaba instructed Mr Mahlangu, but my point is Mahlangu is the minister's advisor so he speaks for the minister," said Mzimela.
Gumbi argued that Gigaba had only been in the position of minister of public enterprises for about two months at that point and had many SOEs in his portfolio.
"One cannot assume he was aware [of everything at SAA] and, therefore, ignored anything," said Gumbi. He also pointed out that only a code-sharing agreement was signed between SAA and Jet Airways during this period and this was done in terms of to all relevant rules and protocols.
Mzimela confirmed this, but added that the SAA board had already started with the Jet Airways code-sharing plan before Gigaba was appointed.
"SAA's management [was] not in agreement about closing the Mumbai route, though. The interference was about closing the Mumbai route, but we stuck with our guns and only concluded a code-sharing agreement, which we believed was beneficial for SAA," said Mzimela.
She also said Mahlangu apologised to her after the meetings and said he was only doing his job as instructed.
"My understanding was that his only boss was Gigaba and that he was, therefore, acting on Gigaba's instruction," said Mzimela.