Seems as if there's a denial -
South African Airways (SAA) denied on Friday that it had paid large bonuses to executives when the airline was only marginally profitable.
The bonuses were paid for the previous and profitable financial year. The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) had claimed on Thursday that directors received large performance bonuses for the 2005/06 financial year, a period when the airline's profits tumbled. But the IFP appears to have got the wrong year. SAA spokesperson Sarah Uys said: "SAA would like to make it clear that the airline paid no bonuses to any of its executives for the financial year ending March 2006, when the airline declared a marginal profit of R65m, compared with the previous financial year when the airline declared a profit of R648m." Uys said the bonuses SAA paid in August 2005 were for the financial year ending March 31 2005. "A considerable profit was declared for that year. Bonuses were paid to executives in accordance with the airline's contractual obligations." She said SAA paid bonuses according to strict performance criteria, in accordance with the guidelines laid down by the department of public enterprises for state-owned enterprises. "SAA is at present in the midst of a deep and fundamental restructuring and in a closed financial period. The aim of this restructuring to simplify, right-size, re-skill and incentivise the business, is to place the airline on the road to profitability," Uys said. The IFP's finance spokesperson Hennie Bekker said on Thursday "a massive R100m has, since 2001, gone straight into the coffers of SAA's directors."