State-owned South African Airways (SAA) on Monday agreed to hold suspended SAA group treasurer Cynthia Stimpel’s disciplinary hearing at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) following her defensive challenge in the Labour Court.

The matter will be heard by an impartial commissioner and not an SAA appointed chairperson, according to a statement issued by Outa.

In July, SAA suspended Stimpel for misconduct as "she had acted in contravention of SAA’s code of conduct". The airline denied that its decision to suspend her had to do with media reports suggesting she had allegedly objected to SAA’s decision to award a tender to “boutique financier” BnP Capital.

Initially SAA wanted Stimpel to agree that she would not launch further court proceedings relating to one of the charges and would pay the costs of the court application. Neither of these requests were acceded to and the matter will now be heard by the CCMA in the near future.

Stimpel’s case was taken on by Outa, under its crowd-funded whistleblower protection programme, which aims to defend whistleblowers against any victimisation tactics that may be implemented by the State and others.

The programme seeks to protect and redress victimisation that springs from the act of whistleblowing, which encourages a the citizenry to more actively fight corruption and maladministration.

The whistleblower protection programme further supports defence efforts of individuals by strengthening the ability of compromised whistleblowers to be successfully defended.