SAA’s profit target a pipe dream – Democratic Alliance

Johannesburg – South African Airways claim that it could achieve close to R2 billion in profit by 2008 is unrealistic, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Thursday.DA spokesman on public enterprises Manie van Dyk told the National Assembly the fact that SAA chief executive Khaya Ngqula had given conflicting statements on the airline’s future profitability, was evidence that the SAA head was not reliable.

“Presumably to escape scrutiny, Ngqula announced that SAA is facing a R3bn loss at the end of the 2007/2008 only on 8 November, at a public press conference instead of in Parliament.

“In light of this situation, the R1.7bn in profit targeted for the end of the 2008/2009 financial year is not credible at all,” he said.

Despite celebrating his three-year anniversary of his position, Ngqula had roundly failed to prove his suitability for his job.

“SAA’s momentary return to profitability after the hedging disaster of 2004 was due to operational gains achieved by Ngqula’s predecessor and Transnet’s “financial engineering” and not because of Ngqula’s skills,” he said.

Van Dyk cited Ngqula’s poor relationship with staff, and the CE’s tendency to mislead Parliament, as proof that the SAA boss was not the right man for the job.

“His numerous run-ins with staff and his personal extravagance aside, Ngqula has also fallen into a habit of spoon-feeding Parliament bad news in bite-sized pieces, only when he has pie-in-the-sky profit projections to sugar-coat it with,” he said.

Source: Sapa

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