Ousted SAA Ceo Ngqula boards gravy plane

Ousted South African Airways chief executive Khaya Ngqula has received more than R33-million in salary, bonuses and severance pay from the troubled national carrier.

According to SAA's annual reports, Ngqula earned R2 295 000 in the 2004/05 financial year, R6 850 000 in the 2005/06 book year including a R1 850 000 bonus payment, and R5-million in the 2006/07 financial year.

In the 2007/08 book year when SAA posted a R1 billion loss, he earned R5 880 000, including a R688 000 retention bonus.

In 2009 he would have earned around R6,3-million, including a retention bonus and the 7 percent salary increase to which managers were entitled.

He would have received another 7 percent increase and a retention bonus in the new financial year bringing his earnings to R6,7-million - amounts apparently calculated into his severance package.

The SAA source said Ngqula had received a severance package "equivalent to what he would have earned had he completed his term of office".

He had repaid about R1,2-million in retention bonuses in terms of the state-owned company's clawback clause in the event of resignation.

The payments exclude the cost of several helicopter trips to meetings in Gauteng during his four-and-a-half year tenure and the cost of a chartered flight from London to Paris where he apparently has a home.

Ngqula's departure from SAA came less than a month after he was suspended pending the outcome of a probe by KPMG's forensic auditors, who were appointed by the company's board of directors in February to investigate numerous irregularities.

These included:

• the payment of R60-million in retention premiums to 127 senior airline officials;
• procurement irregularities related to SAA's restructuring drive;
• the payment of more than R100-million to Seabury consultants, which had recommended that 2 000 jobs be cut;
• allegations of a conflict of interest after it came to light that Mbali Gasa, Ngqula's wife, was a director of the empowerment company awarded the airline's lucrative in-flight catering contract.