South African Airways has appointed Thomas Kgokolo as new interim CEO as the airline begins a transition from business rescue to full operation.
The appointment was made by SAA’s interim board and comes alongside 3 other key interim executive appointments in the human resources, financial and operations departments
The flag carrier has been in business rescue since December 2019. Both parliament and the department of public enterprises have been calling for an end to the process and for the rescue practitioners to hand the airline back to an interim board
According to news 24, the rescue practitioners are currently initiating an exit process with plans to hand the airline back to the interim board as soon as possible and that a receivership has been put in place to finalise the last payments stipulated in the rescue plan over the next 3 years
According to his personal linkedin page, new CEO “ Thomas Kgokolo is a Chartered Accountant and holds an MBA from the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS). On the academic programmes, he is lecturer on the MBA and PDBA in areas of corporate finance, financial and management accounting.
In his other roles, he serves as the Board Chairperson at the Mineworkers Provident Fund (MWPF), a position that requires him to oversee R28 billion assets under management. Privileged to be a Non-Executive Director at both Air Traffic Navigation Services and Sizwe Medical Fund.
He is a member of the audit committee at the Financial Intelligence Centre and National Consumer Tribunal.
Prior to joining GIBS, Mr Kgokolo had acquired experience in the strategy, governance and financial roles. In the past he was the Chief Financial Officer at the Competition Commission of South Africa and more recently Chief Executive Officer at the Air Traffic Navigation Services.”
The South African national airline is still grounded and a new SAA is expected to emerge much smaller, down to about 1000 of its previous 4700 workforce and having returned 40 of its previous aircraft fleet of 49 to lessors
