According to internal documents seen by the Pretoria News, including an email from SAA financial officer Lindsay Olitzki to company secretary Ruth Kibuuka, the lion’s share of the R200m went to law firm Edward Nathann Sonnenbergs and other consultants.
This comes as the socio-economic lives of at least 1 000 SAA employees and their families deteriorate further, forcing the National Union of Metal Workers of SA and the SA Cabin Crew Association to approach the court last week in a bid to force the airline to pay salaries. The case was postponed to today.
A cabin crew attendant said most of her colleagues had gone back home to live with their parents. About 80% of them could no longer afford the standard of living they had worked hard to attain. She said SAA only communicated with its employees when it was time for them to sign something, or when it wanted to convince them to accept unilateral offers behind the backs of the unions.
“Cars and houses were repossessed and children who went to private schools are stranded because they cannot go there without money and public schools have already closed their applications.” Now she is struggling to get them into a public school that will not need transport, but she did not know where money for uniforms, stationery and even registration would come from, as she herself had run herself into the ground with the unpaid bills.
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