The National Skills Fund awarded R148 million to Flyfofa Aviation Training in 2024 for bursaries aimed at students from poor schools. Discrepancies emerged in claimed flying hours, leading to credit notes of nearly R3.9 million. A sister company faces a separate R85 million claim by the Special Investigating Unit.
In 2024 the National Skills Fund granted R148 million to Wonderboom-based Flyfofa Aviation Training to train residents from impoverished Gauteng schools. The programme covered pilot hour-building, cabin crew and drone certificates. Within a year the fund identified inflated flying hours and issued a noncompliance letter.
The discrepancy totalled R3 879 159.89. Flyfofa issued credit notes and agreed to recover the hours by 30 June 2026 or repay the money. As of 6 July the hours had not been recovered and the fund had not received a response to its latest letter.
Payments also flowed to related companies. Flyfofa Aviation Training paid Teejay Properties R11 million and JMF Promotions R2 million. Jacobeth Fisha directs both recipient firms and her husband Thabo Fisha is a co-director in one of them.
The fund only learned of the related-party deals after querying the payments. It has asked for proof that the transactions occurred at market value. The matter remains unresolved.
Flyfofa Airways, formed the same day as the training company and sharing the same director, is the subject of an ongoing Special Investigating Unit case seeking repayment of R85 million from a 2019 contract extension with South African Airways.