By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
South African Airways’ (SAA) is looking for a permanent chief executive officer (CEO) after being led by an interim board for the past three years.
SAA advertised five interim executive management positions, including that of Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Commercial Officer, Chief Human Capital Officer, South African Airways Technical CEO, and CEO of its catering service subsidiary, Airchefs.
Over the past three years, SAA has been led by interim executive management team that was tasked with steering the airline until the anticipated Strategic Equity Partner could come on board.
This was expected to be Takatso, however, this never came to fruition.
“As the pursuit of this transaction with Takatso Aviation has now been terminated, the board has deemed it necessary to have a properly constituted and permanent executive team to pilot the airline’s strategic plan into the future,” the airline’s statement read.
Back in December 2019, SAA was placed under business rescue “to restore confidence in the airline, safeguard its good assets, and help to restructure and reposition the entity into one that is stronger, more sustainable and able to grow and attract an equity partner.”
“The filling of these posts is a positive and decisive step aimed at providing organisational stability and predictable direction of the growth plans and expansion plans currently being pursued”, said Derek Hanekom, chairperson of the SAA interim board of directors.
“The interim executive management team has admirably rebuilt the airline as it emerged out of business rescue with the understanding that their posts would remain interim positions until a new controlling shareholder appoints its management team.”
“All of them, including the interim CEO, Prof John Lamola, supports this development as a necessary and natural step in strengthening SAA’s position in both the local and international aviation markets,” Hanekom said.
“SAA’s strong recovery would not have been possible without the dedication and passion of every single valued SAA employee.
“The commitment of all employees who serve as the backbone of the airline and who believe in the growth of SAA is highly appreciated by the SAA board.” added Hanekom.