Former SAA board member and chartered accountant Yakhe Kwinana has been fined R6.1 m and barred from being a member of the SA Institute of Chartered Accountants (Saica) following a disciplinary hearing.

Fin24 reports that Kwinana served as a board member at the national carrier between 2009 and 2016, including as the head of its important audit and risk committee.

In a ruling made public on Thursday, Saica said its disciplinary committee (DC) found Kwinana guilty of 13 of the 14 charges proffered against her. One of the charges was withdrawn. 

‘The DC was of the view that the respondent was not a fit and proper individual to be a member of the profession and that she should be excluded from membership of Saica with immediate effect,’ said the accountancy regulator.

The ruling means that Kwinana cannot practice as a chartered accountant. She may still be able to practice as an auditor, however, as a different body oversees the profession.

Kwinana has also been ordered to pay all Saica's legal costs in the two-month disciplinary hearing, Saica held the disciplinary hearing following the publication of the State Capture Inquiry report last year, which criticised Kwinana and former SAA CEO Dudu Myeni for causing ‘sustained damage’ to the embattled flag carrier.

In a scathing assessment, the commission found that Kwinana appeared to have ‘no clue about some of the basic obligations that she should know as a charted accountant’ or ‘dishonestly pretended’ she didn't know what her job entailed.

Kwinana had denied any wrongdoing in her testimony before the commission.

Myeni, meanwhile, was declared a delinquent director in May 2020. Saica CEO Freeman Nomvalo said the body is committed to holding all its members accountable.

Full Fin24 report