Look at this, Guvnor. This was published in today's (1 Feb) Business Report. The Journo is Stewart Baily.
Pretoria - The inquiry into last year's failure of Sun Air heard yesterday that Johan Borslap, the airline's chief executive, had been ordered by Coleman Andrews, the chief executive of South African Airways (SAA), to proceed with the winding up of Sun Air.
SAA was neither a creditor nor a shareholder in Sun Air.
Andrews said the decision to close the airline had been taken because of safety concerns over the airline's fleet.
"Borslap told me he wanted to close Sun Air over safety concerns," Andrews told the inquiry 'there appeared to be a substantial risk that Sun Air aircraft would fall from the sky".
Senior counsel for the liquidators contended that Borslap was under the impression SAA had acquired control of Sun Air after meeting with Andrews on August10 last year, three days before Sun Air folded.
Andrews told Borslap that the deal in which SAA would acquire 75 percent of Sun Air would be discussed later that day with the department of public enterprises, which had to approve it.
But the meeting, where the deal was to be ratified, was postponed to August 13. On August12, however, Borslap returned to SAA's offices and was instructed by Andrews to close Sun Air down. Andrews had allegedly not informed Borslap whether the meeting with the government had taken place. Andrews admitted that SAA was at no point in control of Sun Air.
It also emerged yesterday that SAA had summonsed Safair, the aircraft leasing company to return R50 million that SAA had paid to the company in August last year. SAA contends that the money was paid in error. The R50 million had been paid to Safair to ensure that the aircraft it leased to Sun Air would not be released to a competitor within the Southern African Development Community. Andrews said the "broader transaction" had the approval of the SAA board.
The money however was only to have been paid if SAA's purchase of the stake in Sun Air was approved by the government.
Ken Moses, a spokesman for Westrust, Sun Air's liquidator, said it would subpoena the department of public enterprises to explain its role in the airline's liquidation.
It is likely that senior ministry members, both past and present, will be quizzed over the decision to allow Comair, one of Sun Air's major competitors, to purchase a stake in the airline.
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SunAir's aircraft falling from the sky?
No ways Coleman!
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It is much easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission.