SAA acting CEO Musa Zwane yesterday defended the airline’s acting chief financial officer’s actions in response to whistle-blower Cynthia Stimpel’s warnings about a dodgy deal and dismissed the urgency of the suspended treasurer’s application to halt a disciplinary hearing against her. The Labour Court in Johannesburg was told Stimpel had breached SAA’s code and ethics after she leaked documents to the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) that it used to institute court action against the airline in a bid to halt the carrier’s suspect debt financing deal with BnP Capital.

Business Day notes that BnP Capital had stood to make more than R200m from the deal in which it was hired to restructure SAA’s debt and source R15bn in financing for the airline. However, it later emerged that BnP Capital’s licence was suspended by the Financial Services Board. In her founding affidavit, Stimpel revealed that she had made repeated calls to SAA acting chief financial officer Phumeza Nhantsi, flagging procedural flaws about the deal, as well as highlighting her discomfort about the cost implications for the airline.

In his papers, notes Business Day, Zwane said Nhantsi denied Stimpel’s claims that she was concerned about the process followed in the deal with BnP Capital, and it was clear from their e-mail exchanges that the treasurer was mostly concerned about the price. Zwane also said Stimpel’s application was not urgent because she created the urgency by not filing for relief weeks ago. She was suspended, he said, so that SAA could ‘investigate allegations that she had removed confidential documents and disclosed their contents without the necessary authorisation’. The matter was postponed to 22 August.

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