Malusi Gigaba was the start of governance problems at SAA, says Sizakele Mzimela

Governance issues crept in at national carrier SAA soon after former public enterprises minister Malusi Gigaba took over,  former CEO Sizakele Mzimela told the state capture commission on Wednesday.

Mzimela, who is the interim CEO at SA Express and was SAA's CEO between April 2010 and October 2012, said there was good governance under Gigaba's predecessor, minister Barbara Hogan.

But this broke down when Gigaba took over as the political principal in 2010.

Her testimony before the commission on Wednesday corroborated previous testimony by former ANC MP Vytjie Mentor, former SAA board chair Cheryl Carolus and Hogan herself.

Mzimela said: "[Hogan] ensured that [the department of public enterprises'] communication was with the board or the chair of the board. I found that Hogan or the individuals under the ministry would ensure that any communication to the organisation was formal, written communication in all instances.

"We also knew who the individuals were who would interact with the organisation .... Under Gigaba, what we then suddenly found was that we had lots of people from the ministry who had, in the past, never actually come into the organisation to request information.

"Things were beginning to fall through the cracks in terms of the management of information which, for me, was a breakdown in good governance."

Mzimela's testimony is continuing.