Zondo Commission report finds acts of corruption and fraud at SAA

Part 1 of the report of the Zondo Commission into State Capture Inquiry has found that acts of corruption and fraud at South African Airways (SAA) occurred in areas of procurement of goods and services.

Its investigation revealed there was a steady decline in the quality and effectiveness of the governance at SAA from 2012 onwards, under the leadership of former Board Chairperson Duduzile Myeni her co-Board member Yakhe Kwinana, Chairperson of South African Airways Technical (SAAT).

Yakhe Kwinana says there is nothing wrong with being wined and dined by a bidder whilst a tender is open:

Investigations into SAA and SAAT show fraud and corruption took hold in these entities because there was a failure of governance, and the companies were also depleted of responsible and accountable people.

The report which was released on Tuesday night to the public focused on SAA, SAAT, and SA Express.

It also looked at the now defector Gupta owned The New Age and SARS.

The commission has found that there was a massive failure of integrity and governance at the South African Revenue Services (SARS).

Committed managers, who tried to stand up to the increasingly unreasonable and unlawful demands from Board members, were removed from their positions.

Furthermore, auditors appointed to SAA for the 2012 to 2016 financial years failed to detect this fraud and corruption.

Evidence also revealed that Myeni was appointed chairperson in circumstances where she was an underperforming board member.

She ruled through a mixture of negligence, incompetence and deliberate corrupt intent.

State Capture Commission Report Handover:

Meanwhile, the Zondo Commission was given six extensions with more than 300 witnesses giving evidence.

According to the first part of the report that was released approximately 1 438 persons were implicated.

More than 3000 persons were given rule 3.3 notices and over 75 000 pages of oral evidence were collected.

Part two and three of the report are expected to be released before the end of February.

It took the Commission six extensions and 400 days of oral evidence before it could complete its work.

Since 2018, the Commission has heard evidence from various witnesses and implicated persons.

It covered Bosasa, Eskom, Prasa, Denel, Transnet, SARS, Estina and the State Security Agency.

The Commission was required to complete its work within 180 days since its establishment but was given several extensions due to the magnitude of its work.

The video below looks at the finds of the Zondo report: