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South African Airways Technical (SAAT) is exploring the possibility of providing close-protection services to its employees investigating allegations of fraud and rooting out a criminal syndicate said to be fleecing the entity.This comes as the fight against corruption in South Africa continues to claim the lives of whistleblowers and professionals probing graft. The entity, a wholly owned subsidiary of South African Airways (SAA), is no stranger to corruption allegations, having featured prominently at the Zondo commission, which probed allegations of state capture.Business Times understands that the determination of SAA’s management to root out rogue elements in SAAT has elevated the risk of personal harm to employees investigating allegations of wrongdoing.To this end, SAAT has embarked on a process to procure expert services to conduct a comprehensive threat and risk assessment to determine the necessity, scope and level of close protection services required for SAAT personnel responsible for the investigation of cases.The outcome of the process might lead to SAAT adopting a tiered close-protection framework, which includes dedicated bodyguards and armed escorts for employees who would fall into the high-risk category following the assessment.The dominant thinking within SAAT is to be proactive rather than reactive to ensure the safety of the employees it has tasked with cleaning up the organisation.‘Threats, vulnerabilities’“The assessment will evaluate threats, vulnerabilities and operational risks associated with investigative functions and provide evidence-based recommendations regarding the necessity and appropriate level of close protection services,” SAA said in its request for quotation.“The outcome of the assessment will enable SAAT to make informed and defensible decisions regarding the implementation of fit-for-purpose close-protection measures, aligned to identified risk levels, operational requirements, and applicable industry and regulatory standards.”SAAT is a key cog in SAA’s stable and the broader aviation industry. As Africa’s largest maintenance, repair and overhaul provider, it provides aircraft maintenance services to a vast number of commercial airlines.The entity boasts nearly 85,000m² of hangar space, including a 36,000m² major maintenance hangar.Reports emerged in April that there was an organised criminal syndicate operating within SAAT, where valuable avionics and aircraft parts were stolen and illegally sold.A former SAAT avionics technician was convicted and sentenced to 18 years in prison for his role in the syndicate.SAAT chair Lisa Mangcu, in a frank assessment to parliament in April, said the company suffered major losses linked to stolen expensive avionics components.Both SAA and SAAT this year received disclaimed audits with findings for the sixth consecutive year. This means that they yet again failed to provide sufficient evidence to back up their financial statements and that the state of record-keeping is so poor that the auditor-general is unable to even determine how significantly misstated SAA’s finances are.Lifestyle auditsSAAT is also introducing lifestyle audits, tightening employee vetting and overhauling security procedures to combat the corrupt activities.Fighting back against corruption in South Africa has become a matter of life and death, with many whistleblowers having paid the ultimate price as criminal elements resort to violence to protect their ill-gotten gains.Chief among the high-profile victims is Babita Deokaran, who was killed for flagging multibillion-rand graft in the Gauteng department of health.Mpho Mafole, an Ekurhuleni municipal auditor, was gunned down and killed days after finalising a probe focused on a R1.8bn tender.Violence has also been meted out to insolvency experts on the hunt for assets corrupt actors want to keep hidden.SAA spokesperson Mphilo Dlamini said: “Any matters concerning security arrangements, threat assessments, or measures relating to the protection of our personnel, operations or assets are inherently sensitive and confidential. As such, it would be inappropriate to disclose information of this nature publicly.” Business Times
