SAA man apologises for racial blunder
SAA man apologises for blunder
January 25 2008 at 07:09AM
A South African Airways senior manager has apologised to his staff after sending out an email saying "non-white" individuals had to be given preference for overtime and extra training.
Zak Liyaqat-Ali, the airline's manager for avionics and in-flight entertainment, said his managers had been made aware of the email after he sent out an apology.
He said the initial email had been intended to lead to a balance in the "ratio of full-complement (cabin crew)".
"My request was not extraordinary. I needed to address the unfairness (of overtime allocation)."
In his email, to six supervisors, Liyaqat-Ali instructed that "in regards to overtime, kindly ensure that if there (are) any non-white individuals, they must be accommodated first".
Clive Else, SAA's chief executive for technical operations, said that Liyaqat-Ali had sent out his first email at 8am on Wednesday and had apologised several hours later for the wording.
He had replaced it on Thursday with an email that made it clear that the intention was to allocate overtime work equitably in the department, Else said.
Last year, SAA's chief executive, Khaya Ngqula, said that the carrier was to axe 1 000 jobs across all sections because of high operating costs.