According to a report yesterday, employees of Air Chefs, a division of SAA, and the supplier of catering to the airline, are facing disciplinary action following the discovery that they dumped huge amounts of food. 

Merely weeks before the national carrier, recently rated the 9th most dangerous airline in the world, asked the government for an emergency R550 million guarantee to cover operational costs and fuel, employees of Air Chefs wasted huge amounts of food. 

Air Chefs dumped 840 lemon meringues, 250 cheese snack foccacias, 300 turkey croissants, almost 1 000 bread rolls and 150 millefeuille desserts, the newspaper reported. 

Between December 13 and 20, staff dumped 90kg of beef sausage, 38kg of beef, 160kg of egg pulp, 380kg of vegetables, 59kg of cheese and 2 040 walnut pastries and savoury biscuits. 

SAA attributed the wastage to ordering too much food, pilfering, fraud and inadequate stock control. 

The extra food used to go to charities but it no longer did because unions demanded “transparencies in the selection of charities,” and obviously once this happens, nobody can actually make any decisions it seems. 

The Sunday Times report stated that a forensic audit was underway and it would investigate the fraud and the extent of the waste – supposedly costing about R5 million a month. 

Air Chefs relied on SAA for its funding, taking R99 million in 2012, and would request a further R49 million. Tlali Tlali, SAA spokesperson, said Air Chefs produced 22 000 meals for 125 flights daily, and confirmed disciplinary action was underway.

It was also reported that an “intervention team” had been sent to deal with the issue, but had had their contract cancelled by the airline’s board two months later.

[Source: IOL]