SAA’s suspended chief medical officer Nonhlanhla Sishaba has denied the allegations of misconduct levelled against her by the airline and the SA Civil Aviation Authority, and sent her employer a letter of demand seeking to be reinstated within seven days.
She has also demanded the two organisations retract their media statements about her and issue a public apology, reports BusinessLIVE.
SAA suspended Sishaba on 10 September after the SACAA had to ask more than 100 pilots, cabin crew, flight engineers and air traffic controllers to undergo new medical examinations, alleging she had cleared them to fly without the authority to do so.
“I categorically deny the allegations … The innuendo is that through fraud, I compromised public safety. This is simply not true,” said Sishaba in a statement issued on her behalf by her lawyer Emile Myburgh.
“There has never been any reason to doubt my capability, professional ethics or my personal integrity in my 22 years in aviation medicine, including my time in service in the South African National Defence Force,” she added.
Myburgh said his client would seek damages for defamation.
Earlier this month, the SACAA said Sishaba’s status as a designated aviation medical examiner (DAME) had expired on 31 March, but that she had continued to conduct medical examinations and unlawfully cleared people to fly.
None of the medical certificates she issued after this date was valid, it said, instructing all of the affected people to undergo new medical examinations within 15 days.
Speaking through her lawyer, Sishaba said the SACAA had twice previously allowed her to issue medical certificates after her DAME status had expired and approval of her renewal application was pending.
In neither of those instances had it accused her of fraud, thus setting a precedent, she said.
In 2020, her DAME status expired on 31 March, but the new designation was only granted by the SACAA on 12 August. In 2022, her designation was signed on 21 April, three weeks after the previous one expired, she said.
The SACAA previously said it had not renewed Sishaba’s DAME status after 31 March because it discovered anomalies in the test results she submitted to back up previous medical certificates, which indicated some individuals with serious medical conditions had been given the green light.
She initially withheld those results, and only submitted the documentation when the authority requested them. She was fined R10 000 for the late submission.
SAA said it stood by its public statements regarding its decision to provisionally suspend Sishaba pending the outcome of it own investigation and that by the SACAA.
“The SACAA’s action against her conduct, which its preliminary investigations deemed so severe that it announced that all medical fitness certificates issued by her since April 2024 are invalid, is a matter of grave public interest for the aviation community and air passengers,” it said.
“In keeping with our commitment to consequence management in rooting out all unethical behaviour and our non-negotiable stance on air safety, SAA will not withdraw the media statement issued on this matter on 10 September 2024. Neither can Dr Sishaba be allowed to perform her duties while her status remains suspended by the civil aviation authority,” it said.
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