Former South African Airways (SAA) interim chief financial officer Phumeza Nhantsi was put under enormous pressure to sign off on a huge payout to BNP Capital. When she resisted, her role as a ‘team player’ was brought into question.
Just 48 hours into the job as interim CFO at SAA, Phumeza Nhantsi was handed a number for Dudu Myeni’s “personal adviser”, Masotsha Mngadi, then a senior Nedbank employee.
“Immediately when I joined, Dudu Myeni gave me his number and said he was an adviser and that if there were any questions, I should speak to him.
“This was about two days after I joined.”
Mngadi would make contact first. Later, he would actively drive a controversial R15-billion deal involving BNP Capital, a company that allegedly had close ties to Myeni.
The deal raised multiple red flags including governance failures, the presence of a mysterious Russian-linked funder across three different bids, one of which included the Free State Development Corporation.
Nhantsi, a chartered accountant seconded to SAA in November 2015, told the State Capture Commission that when she first asked former board member Yakhe Kwinana about Mngadi and his role at SAA, Kwinana allegedly said he was “Dudu’s person”.
Nhantsi has been severely implicated in testimony by former SAA treasurer Cynthia Stimpel over her role in a debt-consolidation deal that saw BNP Capital being appointed, first as a transaction adviser at R2.6-million, and later to arrange the R15-billion deal, allegedly at the steep price of R225-million.
In the end, following much public pressure and legal action by civic organisation Outa, the deal was cancelled, but not before Nhantsi motivated a cancellation fee to the board.
While she was repeatedly interrogated about why she had not sounded the alarm over the deal, Nhantsi’s testimony suggests that she had been subjected to severe pressure by both Myeni and Mngadi.
On 25 May 2016 when SAA sent a letter of award to BNP to source the R15-billion, BNP Capital acknowledged receipt thereof and then added a little bonus clause for a 50% payment of the total fees payable — within seven days. In the event, the deal was cancelled.
After BNP lost out on the big cash-raising deal, all efforts were seemingly focused on extracting a cancellation fee out of SAA.
Nhantsi thought the figure of R128-million was excessive and insisted on getting a legal opinion — and she wanted Myeni’s board to approve it.
Nhantsi testified that she had been put under enormous pressure between 2 June and 8 June when there were a lot of calls, some from Myeni allegedly telling her that she was behaving as if it was “business as usual”.
“I wasn’t only getting calls from Mr Mngadi. I was also getting calls from Ms Myeni.” While Nhantsi provided the commission with copies of Mngadi’s WhatsApp messages, she said she didn’t have any from Myeni — “the former chairperson allegedly once told me the reason nobody can find anything on her is because ‘she doesn’t write anything down’ ”.
(Compiled by Johanna Molokomme) Source: Daily Marverick
