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Johannesburg - State owned-airline South African Airways (SAA) on Wednesday announced the appointment of Siza Mzimela as its new CEO.
Mzimela is the current CEO of the regional SA Express Airline. Her appointment at SAA will commence on March 1.
SAA's board early last year suspended former chief executive Khaya Ngqula's employment, after he was accused of abusing the airline's procurement processes to benefit his wife.
Ngqula has subsequently been fired.
SAA chairperson Cheryl Carolus told Fin24.com: "Siza perfectly fitted our profile for the position. She brings broad airline industry experience, having worked for both SAA and SA Express for fourteen years."
Carolus said Mzimela took SA Express to a sustainable profitable position.
Mzimela previously worked as an executive for SAA's marketing and Voyager divisions, before joining SA Express as head in 2003.
"She has the experience and perfectly fits the SAA profile," said Carolus.
Mzimela has both the experience of running a big organisation and also had the financial acumen, having worked for a bank before joining SAA, said Carolus.
Under Mzimela's leadership, SA Express was one of the only state-owned entities that was both stable and profitable.
She also expanded SA Express into Africa, which will be a key issue for the SAA position, said Carolus.
Describing the process of appointing a chief executive, Carolus told Fin24.com that Mzimela was one of five short-listed candidates for the job that has been vacant for a year.
"The best thing about that was that only one candidate came from outside South Africa," Carolus said. SAA launched an international search for the candidate.
"SAA is a R24bn global company and we needed a global chief executive for the role."
The search for the chief executive had been an independent process conducted by an outside recruiter who came back with the five candidates, said Carolus. SAA then decided on Mzimela as their candidate, which the government approved on Wednesday.
Since Ngqula left, Chris Smyth has been SAA's acting CEO, and will continue to work for the airline as general manager for operations.
"Chris came in and stabilised the ship, we're really thankful to him for that," said Carolus.
- Fin24.com