South African Airways (SAA) has made its seventh Chief Executive appointment in less than four years, with the national carrier’s Head of Technical, Musa Zwane, now replacing Thuli Mpshe as acting Chief Executive– who has been in the role since July this year.
Chairperson of the SAA board, Dudu Myeni, made this reshuffle following the resignation of Chief Financial Officer, Wolf Meyer, and the suspension of Head of Commercial, Sylvain Bosc.
Daily newspaper, Business Report, cited SAA spokesperson, Tlali Tlali, as saying that Zwane had been appointed “due to operational demands within the business”. The airline is expected to make further key appointment announcements later this week.
The chief executives and acting chief executives since 2012 were: Siza Mzimela (resigned); Vuyisile Kona (acting but suspended by board after a few months); Nico Bezuidenhout (acting); Monwabisi Kalawe (suspended, then resigned); Bezuidenhout (acting again); and Thuli Mpshe (acting).
The airline has made headlines recently, with the The SAA Pilots Association taking a vote of ‘no confidence’ in the airline’s board on Monday, while Myeni is reportedly renegotiating a contract that would see SAA lease aircraft from Airbus so that the airline would lease the aircraft from a third party instead, which would buy the jets on SAA’s behalf. The third party has not been named.
