ANC and minister must rein in Myeni

THERE have been so many executive and boardroom reshuffles at state entities that we are becoming uncomfortably accustomed to them and the governance debacle that usually accompanies the moves.

But even for hardened watchers of state-owned enterprises, the latest appointment at South African Airways (SAA) is something of a shocker.

SAA is already being led by chairwoman Dudu Myeni, a close friend of President Jacob Zuma, who has no demonstrable qualifications to run a large corporation, let alone one in dire straits.

SAA’s problems would appear to make it important to put experienced management in charge of the airline, which is financially and operationally in crisis.

Yet GM Thuli Mpshe, who has been installed to act as CEO, after the abrupt departure last week of previous acting CEO Nico Bezuidenhout, comes from a human resources (HR) background, not a financial or an operational one.

This looks like it is becoming a bit of a trend — over at PetroSA, which is to report almost R15bn in losses for the latest financial year — vice-president for human capital Mapula Modipa is acting as CEO. However important the HR function, putting HR managers at the helm of large, cash-strapped and complex companies is not an encouraging sign.

But, for the moment, whether Ms Mpshe actually has any of the attributes required to lead SAA is a secondary issue compared to the much bigger one of the manner in which she was appointed.

Bizarrely, SAA’s shareholder, the Treasury, is reported to have known nothing about the appointment of the acting CEO. The airline’s chairwoman, it seems, is doing her own thing, without a functioning board — presumably because she assumes she has cover from the president. It’s not clear whether he knows what she’s up to. Certainly no one else seems to.

This is extremely disturbing, and it demands urgent action. The government had to put up R6.5bn in additional guarantees in December to ensure that SAA was a “going concern”. The government cannot and should not risk more money on it. The matter cannot wait until the airline’s annual general meeting in October, which is when we have been promised that new appointments to the board will be made.

It is time Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene took a firm stand against the machinations. He was unexpectedly put in charge of SAA when the president shifted it from the Department of Public Enterprises to the Treasury at the end of last year.

Nene is responsible for stewarding the country’s finances as well as the fortunes of its national airline. He simply has to show that he can stand up to whatever pressure the irresponsible Myeni thinks she can bring to bear.

The African National Congress (ANC), too, needs to do the right thing. We’re often told that members of the government (and indeed executives and board members of state entities) are deployees of the ruling party. That surely includes Zuma himself.

It is the ANC, in other words, that should be calling the shots on SAA and demand that Zuma himself explain if he is allowing the close friendship with Myeni to cloud his judgment and enable her to wreck a national asset.

The ANC’s national executive committee lekgotla had little more than platitudes on state-owned entities despite the governance and financial crises in which many find themselves. And it was not clear whether it came up with anything meaningful on how to tackle the crisis at SAA.

The longer the finance minister and the ruling party remain too timid to speak truth to power, the less likely it is that SAA can survive.