R6,7-million
Ann Eveleth
A South African Airways (SAA) manager found guilty of serious misconduct costing the state airline an estimated R6,7-million was not fired because the SAA employee who presided over his inquiry could not “sleep with the dismissal decision”.
This “crisis of conscience” is reported in an internal audit completed by Transnet Group auditors in December on the instructions of SAA executive director Zukile Nomvete.
The report, in the possession of the Mail & Guardian, indicates that an SAA internal disciplinary inquiry found its Free State manager, Andre Geldenhuys, guilty of four charges of “serious misconduct and negligence” and two charges of “serious misconduct and abuse of managerial authority” in August 1997, but did not fire him for the offences.
The documents allege that the inquiry’s presiding officer, Anton Botha, then SAA’s senior marketing manager in charge of the airline’s Voyager frequent-flyer programme, ignored the advice of a company labour- relations officer to dismiss Geldenhuys because “he would not sleep with the dismissal decision”. Botha also believed there were loopholes in the disiplinary procedure which could result in Geldenhuys’s reinstatement if an appeal was made, and that he had already “cleared the issue”.
SAA representative Leon Els confirmed this week that Geldenhuys had remained in the employ of the airline after the inquiry. Geldenhuys had, however, applied in January to take early retirement from March.
Els confirmed that Botha’s failure to sack Geldenhuys could result in him receiving a larger pension pay-out than he would otherwise have done, as dismissed employees lose the interest portion of their pension. Geldenhuys’s “clean” 31-year service record with SAA was one of several reasons Botha gave the auditors when approached to explain his decision.
Geldenhuys was found guilty of “diverting business from other airstations by offering discounts; violating class structures, booking codes and pricing policies; confirming tickets in certain classes but authorising lower fares, thus gaining business for particular travel agents in the Free State; and authorising airfares of unknown origin”. He also discounted air fares where foreign carriers performed part of the journey without their authority and issued tickets with zero values, the report says.
“As a result of the above actions, the relationship between SAA and certain travel agents was damaged, and SAA lost a minimum of R6,7-million in the form of lost revenue, diluted yields and profit between January 1996 and June 1997,” the report adds.
Els said SAA security and the South African Police Service’s commercial crimes unit investigated possible fraud charges against Geldenhuys. This followed the auditors’ recommendations, which included the investigation of possible disciplinary action against Botha.
Els said Botha had since left SAA to take up a post with an insurance firm, rendering any internal probe pointless. SAA losses amounted to R324-million last year.