Management crisis at SAA

The abrupt departure of yet another senior member of the leadership team of South African Airways (SAA) is a stark reminder of the serious management crisis at Africa’s largest airline. In recent years, SAA seems to have been operating a revolving-door management policy with top executives coming and going at an alarming rate.

This management instability, combined with SAA’s current dire financial situation, does not auger well for the airline’s future. A knock-on effect has been the glaring lack of leadership provided by SAA in major international fora where the airline holds high office on behalf of Africa, such as the International Air Transport Association (IATA), but is rarely present at the appropriate level to make the continent’s voice heard. 

SAA recently announced in diplomatic parlance that its Deputy Chief Executive, Oyama Mabandla, had resigned to “pursue personal business interests.” His departure follows the sudden resignation in July this year of SAA’s President and CEO, André Viljoen, two years before his contract expired. When Oyama was appointed Deputy CEO only last November he was heavily tipped to eventually take over the top post from Viljoen and he was made Acting CEO after Viljoen left. But in September, newcomer Khaya Ngqula, the former head of South Africa’s Industrial Development Corporation, was named CEO of SAA. 

Other unscheduled departures from SAA include former CEO, Coleman Andrews; Finance Director, Richard Forson; Technical Director, Vince Raseroka; Communications Director, Victor Nosi; Cargo Director, Tleli Makhetha; Head of Global Sales and SAA’s loyalty programme, Voyager, Siza Mzimela; Human Resources Director, Vusi Dlamini; and non-executive Board Chairman, Don Ncube, etc. Furthermore, there has recently been a serious erosion of SAA’s priceless Technical and Operational expertise. All of this is quite worrying.