Former boss of ailing SAA paid R4.5m

Cape Town - Former SAA CEO Monwabisi Kalawe raked in a cool R4.5m in the year 2014/2015, according to a reply to a parliamentary question released on Monday.

Chief Financial Officer WH Meyer earned R3.6m and some change during the same period for his work at the struggling state-owned entity, which was living on bailouts from the Treasury during that period.

Kalawe resigned in April and reportedly received a payout of R2.7m at the time.

SAA chairperson Dudu Miyeni, earned R846 115.62.

DA MP Malcolm Figg, who submitted the question, told News24 the reply was "interesting", not just because Kalawe and Meyer earned so much, but also because of what Miyeni earned.

"They earn more than the president," said Figg.

"I will definitely be making a follow-up question for more detail," he said, adding that the payments were out of kilter with the performance of the group.

Earlier this year, Comair launched an unsuccessful court bid to stop the bailouts paid to SAA, saying it made it extremely difficult for airlines to compete when one was getting cash injections from the government.

Comair argued in the High Court in Pretoria that the national carrier should have gone into business rescue instead of receiving the bailouts.

The government granted SAA a R5bn guarantee for a period of two years in October 2012, but in October 2014 SAA asked for more money and received another R5bn in loan guarantees.

In January 2015, Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene said SAA would receive another R6.5bn injection from state coffers.

But the amount Kalawe received was fractional compared with the more than R200m one of his predecessors, Andrew Coleman, was paid when he left.

Kalawe resigned in the midst of allegations that he had procured false bank statements to smear Miyeni.