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TAXPAYER’S E1M SPENT ON FAILED AIR SHOW

06/01/2019 01:22:00 BY PHEPHILE MOTAU

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MATSAPHA – What a waste! The Times SUNDAY can reveal today that over E1 million was spent on two unsuccessful air shows held in September 2018, co-hosted by Eswatini Civil Aviation Authority (SWACAA), a government company, and SkyMax Aviation Solutions.

SkyMax is a private company under the directorship of among others, Patrick du Pont, a police officer.
The Eswatini Civil Aviation is a statutory body that was established by the Government of the Kingdom of Eswatini through an Act of Parliament, the Civil Aviation Authority Act No.10 of 2009, and became operational on December 7, 2009.

It must be said that the first of the two shows attracted about 2 000 people. however, most of those who attended, returned home disappointed at being made to watch two local aircraft perform aerial displays.

At least 15 aircraft from South Africa did not turn up on account of bad flight weather. Their failure to come to the country rendered the show a dismal flop. This is despite the fact that SWACAA had already paid E350 000 to a Johannesburg-based association representing the pilots while SkyMax Solutions Aviation reportedly spent E250 000 to total up the first payment to E600 000.

In the second show held on September 29, 2018 to make up for the failed one held on September 8, documents seen by this newspaper reveal that the public company paid E150 000, excluding money for fuel and other incidentals such as renting tents and toilets.

It has also emerged that E250 000 was collected from various sponsors, and the money was paid to SWACAA. The name of the sponsors will not be mentioned as the issue is now a subject of professional investigation by KPMG Eswatini. Balancing the figures, the public enterprise spent not less than E750 000 while SkyMax parted with E250 000, amounting to E1 million spent on the two shows.

Sources say SWACAA could have spent over E1 million if overtime allowances, fuel and other incidentals were to be considered. Investigations by this newspaper unearthed that SkyMax Solutions Aviation was slapped with an outstanding balance last week by a pilot in Nelspruit who claimed that he was not paid for the show yet he had been booked for it.

For a fact, he eventually did not come to the country for the show, but wants his money paid in full because he cancelled alternative bookings in his country in the hope that he would fly to King Mswati III International Airport on September 8, 2018 to perform. He asked du Point to consider a bill of E50 000 for immediate payment. It has also been established that SkyMax, which organised and coordinated the show, made a total loss of E330 000 for co-hosting the two shows with SWACAA.

KPMG roped in

As a result of alleged or perceived wastage of public funds by particularly the public enterprise, the SWACAA Board of Directors has hired KPMG Eswatini to audit the air show expenditure. The audit was understandably necessitated by revelations that members of the executive committee of the public enterprise were divided over the way in which the event was being organised.

The aggrieved members are said to have complained to the board that the show was organised behind their back. Our investigations revealed that two of the eight-member executive committee who were totally opposed to the show being organised behind their back included Sabelo Dlamini, SWACAA’s Marketing Director and Musa Magongo, the Finance Director.

In fact, Dlamini was reportedly opposed to the public entity financing the event because it was not budgeted for – in the first place. Due to the fact that there was no initial budget for the event, impeccable sources said money that had been allocated to other departments was diverted to fund the SWACAA 2018 Eswatini Air show.

Most disturbingly, sources said exhibiting pilots reportedly informed the organisers three days before the show that meteorologists in South Africa predicted bad flight weather would be a concern on the day of the event.

Since most of them were from unidentified provinces of South Africa where the weather conditions were unfavourable to air travel to Eswatini, they are said to have advised SWACAA and some members of SkyMax Aviation Solutions that the show should be postponed.

Impeccable sources said they were even committed to refunding the organisers if the show was cancelled on account of unfavourable weather conditions. However, representatives of the public enterprise nursed hopes that the sky might allow the air plays to go on undisturbed by strong wind and hailstorms. Indeed, the weather was bad on September 8.

Then why they were paid?
The pilots claimed they deserved to be paid and would not refund SWACAA and SkyMax because they had cancelled their alternative bookings in their country in the hope the weather would improve as suggested by one or two of the public entity’s representatives.

“There was no way the pilots would have refunded SWACAA because they cancelled alternative bookings. This was after they were advised to be on standby. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t improve, but money had already been deposited to their bank accounts,” a source said.

What also infuriated certain managers of SWACAA was that the profit share margin was questionable as two companies came with a proposal that the public entity would get 20 per cent profit while the remaining 80 per cent was to be shared equally by them (two companies).
The names of these companies are withheld pending the outcome of the audit exercise by the auditing company. “Another thing which made our directors or say our managers unhappy with the whole thing is that money collected from tickets for the event has not been remitted to SWACAA,” said one of the well placed sources.