Five ways ex-SAA Chartered Accountant Yakhe Kwinana ducked, dived at Zondo

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Appalled and frustrated would accurately describe the reaction of Judge Ray Zondo as Yakhe Kwinana gave her testimony on Monday and Tuesday. As the head of the SAA Technical board, Kwinana was heavily involved in orchestrating tenders and deals for the company despite not having the jurisdiction to do so. Kwinana is alleged to have pushed out the acting chief executive and head of procurement so she and former SAA chairperson Dudu Myeni could awards contracts as they saw fit. While board members have an oversight role of the affairs of an enterprise, meddling is an abuse of power and deemed illegal. Kwinana, however says she was merely supporting the management of SAAT as they did their work. Her testimony has been hostile, uncooperative and non-sensical as she has manoeuvred through evidence leader Kate Hofmeyr’s questions. – Bernice Maune

Yakhe Kwinana strong arms Swissport into parting with 30% of contract revenue

Peter Kohl, CEO of Swissport gave a statement two days after having a meeting with Yakhe Kwinana and her team that he had been coerced into entering an illegal agreement. Having won a bid for R1,5bn Kohl said he was told that he should partner with a black-owned company. This was actually an order which would affect Swissport’s bottom line, Kohl said. Kwinana denied this and said Kohl was fabricating the sequence of events. She asked for minutes of the meeting as evidence and said she had no memory of what happened.

Hostility fills the air as Kwinana plays hide and seek

Right at the beginning of the inquiry, Kwinana was blatantly fuming as she told Zondo of how unfair the commission was. Having whipped out a file containing a list of corrupt executives, Kwinana was advised to submit an affidavit to allow the people implicated to correspond. Later, Zondo chastised her, leading to an air of hostility in the commission.

“You are not doing justice to yourself. You are a pro, a chartered accountant. I do not know how many times I have explained simple things to be fair to you, saying please answer the questions that are being asked.

“If I make an adverse finding against you as a witness, it could have far-reaching consequences to you as a witness. For your own sake please listen to questions and answer, do not tell me something you say I want to know which has not been asked,” said Zondo.

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Air Chefs vs Sky Chefs

Lufthansa-owned Sky Chefs secured a tender to provide catering services but this was overruled by Kwinana. Air Chefs, a company owned by SAA then got the contract but continued to be lambasted for their poor service. This move was further proof that Kwinana and Myeni made decisions that were not beneficial for the parastatal and contributed to its grounding.

R1,5bn Swissport contract under more scrutiny

“I didn’t think that this is a contract. I thought we were approving only the terms and conditions, not the whole contract,” said Kwinana.

To which Zondo responded that her chartered accountant profession should have enabled her to proofread contracts.

Analogy of fat cakes enters the Zondo fray

One viral moment which caught the commission off guard was when Kwinana used an analogy of fat cakes to defend awarding a contract to a poor performing SAA owned company.

“If my daughter sells fat cakes and someone next door is also selling fat cakes, why would I buy next door instead of supporting my daughter?

“I would not go next door to buy fat cakes and leave my child’s fat cakes here. Even if I had a challenge with them, I would say reduce the baking powder, add this and that so it could be to the customer’s satisfaction,” she said.

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