By Iavan Pijoos.
Former SAA Technical (SAAT) chairperson and one-time SAA board member Yakhe Kwinana has appeared in the Randburg Magistrate’s Court on charges of extortion, theft, intimidation, malicious damage to property.
According to a police statement, it is alleged that she is linked to a series of taxi violence and extortion cases in East London, and was always accompanied by armed men when she threatened people and extorted money from them.
The victims’ properties were also allegedly demolished on her instructions.
The court heard that she has a private attorney in East London and would not need Legal Aid assistance. State prosecutor Yusuf Baba told the court that Kwinana’s case would be transferred to East London.
Kwinana arrest
Kwinana was arrested in Midrand by a team of officers from the National Intervention Unit (NIU), Gauteng Serious and Violent Crime Investigations (SVCI), Tactical Response Team (TRT), and the National Traffic Anti-Corruption Unit.
Police described Kwinana’s arrest as the end of her alleged “reign of terror”. She briefly appeared as a group of heavily armed officers escorted her from the police holding cells to the courtroom.
When asked about her stance on the media’s presence, Kwinana did not object. She told the court she assumed she would be appearing in court in East London on Wednesday. This after the matter was postponed to 24 March.
“In fact, I was informed [that] in this court, it will be for transit to East London.”
In response, Baba told the court that Kwinana could contact her attorney as soon as she arrived in East London.
“She can contact her attorney, and then they can contact the investigating officer and take it further from there with the prosecution in East London. At this stage, she is only here for transit purposes,” he said.
Previous fraud charges
In November 2024, Kwinana appeared in the Palm Ridge Specialised Commercial Crime Court on fraud charges. She was granted R20 000 bail.
She was charged in connection with her alleged failure to disclose that her auditing firm, Kwinana and Associates, had “previous contractual relationships” with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and Nkonki Incorporated when the two – as a joint venture – were awarded what ended up being a multi-year auditing contract that cost SAA about R59 million.
The allegations emerged at the State Capture Inquiry, which ultimately found, while it could not “definitively conclude” from the evidence before it that there was “bias or intentional wrongdoing” in the initial award, that the reappointments were “irregular” and that Kwinana “did not pay regard to due processes or conflicts of interest”.
Kwinana served as a board member at the national carrier between 2009 and 2016, including as the head of its important audit and risk committee.
Meanwhile, in April 2023, News24 reported that she was fined R6.1 million and barred from being a member of the SA Institute of Chartered Accountants (Saica) following a disciplinary hearing.
‘Fat cakes’
Kwinana became a household name after testifying at the State Capture Inquiry, where she was asked by evidence leader, advocate Kate Hofmeyer, about a catering tender that had originally been awarded to Lufthansa-owned Sky Chefs. The tender was cancelled and reawarded to SAA subsidiary Air Chefs, leading Kwinana to respond with an analogy involving her daughter’s “fat cakes”.
“If my daughter is selling fat cakes here at home, why would I go and buy fat cakes next door?” she asked.
“And then if I decided to go and buy fat cakes next door, as a parent am I not supposed to tell the child that I don’t like your fat cakes, this is how you should do the fat cakes then please correct here and there and so on?”