Athol Williams, Themba Maseko, Bianca Goodson, Simphiwe Mayisela, Cynthia Stimpel and many others are some of the patriotic South Africans who deserve the greatest honour in our country.
At the height of state capture years, these patriots stood up for the country against the looters and saved the country billions of rands in the process.
In Hijackers on Board, whistleblower Cynthia Stimpel gives a blow-by-blow account of the events that saw her save the South African Airways(SAA) R256 million from a corrupt deal involving BNP capital and some corrupt leaders within the airline.
Perusing through the pages of this book, I had mixed emotions. First, I was so angry that even when the airline’s financial woes have long been documented, we still had leaders like Dudu Myeni and her board at the time who were willing to waste taxpayers’ money for an unnecessary deals such as the BNP capital one.
However, on the other hand, I was so happy that even under serious pressure and at a risk of losing livelihoods, Cynthia stood up against the bullies and corrupt individuals to do the right thing for the country and her people.
Inside the pages of this book, you would as a reader, get to have a full understanding of not only the pressure that whistleblowers such as Cynthia found themselves in during the state capture years, but how arrogant, dangerous, and reckless the likes of Dudu Myeni and her acolytes were throughout that dark period of our country.
I think the only bummer for me was how the scribe failed in some instances to provide some of the proof to back up her claims against the likes of Myeni and the executives. The screenshots of email exchanges or any documents speaking to how the likes of Myeni and her acolytes were adamant in seeing off the BNP Capital deal would have given much credence to the story.
A book of this magnitude where you would obviously have individuals who would easily dismiss some of the points raised to save their own skin should have had evidence backing it. And I am stating that not because I do not believe Cynthia as a whistleblower, but I know fully well that the hyenas who wanted to loot the airline would jump off and accuse her of lying.
Besides that, Hijackers on Board is a courageous read by a patriotic South African who showed good character and moral leadership by choosing to do the right thing while it was not fashionable to do so.