The board of SA Express faces the risk of being charged with bruising sanctions for how they have managed the cash-strapped airline over the past 20 months and the glacial pace in turning it around.
Ziegler SA, which is owed R11.3-million by SA Express, whose flight routes typically serve SA’s smaller cities as a feeder to South African Airways , asked the court to slap the airline’s board members with a personal legal cost order because their opposition to the urgent application is “reckless”. Nazeer Cassim SC, counsel for Ziegler SA, took it a step further, saying the directors are “delinquent”, a serious charge of misconduct that can ban a person from being a director in SA for at least seven years. But Ziegler SA didn’t charge SA Express board members with delinquency.
Alternatively, Zeigler SA wants the airline to be liquidated, which would signal the death of SA Express because its 1,000 employees would lose their jobs, airline operations would be shut and a fire-sale of assets would ensue to settle outstanding debt.