Sunday Independent reports that according to insiders, South African Airways’ (SAA’s) nightmarish financial predicament could be attributed in part to the exorbitant salaries of some of its senior executives.  

Insisting that the proposed retrenchments could have been avoided, the sources claimed that the cash-strapped airline recruited some senior managers at double the salaries of their predecessors.  Apparently, at SAA Technical (SAAT) alone, the salaries of chief executive Adam Voss and general managers under him have doubled since the New Zealand national took over in June.  “The salary of the previous CEO of SAAT was R3.2million a year but the new CEO Adam Voss is earning R6million per year.  General managers of the different units are earning R4million per year, double what the previous ones were earning. Now they want to say SAA doesn’t have money and they have to retrench workers while people have exorbitant packages at the expense of taxpayers,” a source said.  SAA spokesperson Tlali Tlali defended the managers’ remunerations.  He said the salaries were deserved and those in the positions were working to turn things around within the organisation.  “We remunerate our employees based on their experience, skills and track record, in accordance with industry standards and subject to the affordability.  The SAAT organisational structure has been significantly enhanced with the sole focus on capability and capacity to transform and align SAAT to the expected outcome as per SAA’s Long-term Turnaround Strategy.  If the expertise does not exist within the country then the relevant skills will be sought from outside South Africa,” Tlali stated.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Mzilikazi wa Afrika and Karabo Ngoepe at Sunday Independent

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