Mail & Guardian reports that Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene has demanded an explanation from SA Airways (SAA) for its contract with interim CFO Robert Head that will see him pocketing more than R5‑million for six months’ work.  

The contract is part of a series of expensive hires by the cash-strapped national carrier.  CEO Vuyani Jarana has justified the appointments as the only way to turn the airline around.  The British-based Head, a former finance head at Nedbank and SARS, was appointed on a six-month contract in April after the airline had placed its chief financial officer, Phumeza Nhantsi, on suspension in March.  In a letter addressed to SAA’s board last Monday, Nene also took members to task over their failure to inform him of the suspension of the finance head and the appointment of an acting one.  He furthermore asked SAA to produce evidence that it had followed its own recruitment processes, including determining whether local skills were available, when hiring several British-based consultants.  Head’s package, which comes to just more than R900,000 a month, eclipses what the chief executives and finance heads at Eskom and Transnet earned in the same period during the past financial year.

• Read this report by Sabelo Skiti in full at Mail & Guardian

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