The whispers are circulating – Department of Transport DG,  Mpumi Mpofu (wife of controversial ex-SABC ceo Dali Mpofu) is currently the hot favourite to succeed Khaya Ngqula, as CEO of SAA. Mpofu has just resigned from the DoT, which could be an indicator she’s the hot tip, although she has denied in media she will take the post.

  

Media reports say Vodacom chairman Oyama Mabandla too is a candidate. He was mentored by Andre Viljoen, and groomed to succeed Viljoen. But Viljoen left suddenly and Khaya Ngqula was unexpectedly appointed, and Mabandla left the airline soon for Vodacom after a very short term as acting CEO for SAA.

 

It would be a comfort to know Nomfanelo Magwentshu was in the running. Confident and extremely competent, she was SAA’s general manager business development and the success of two major projects she drove during her tenure (SAA joined the Star Alliance, and launched LCC, Mango) is proof of her capability and leadership. She left to join 2010 Fifa World Cup Organising Committee as COO, and it’s unlikely (but not impossible) she’d leave World Cup with only 10 months to go to the fruition of her efforts. SAA would be lucky to get her to come back.

  

Then there’s Siza Nzimela, CE of that feisty little feeder carrier, SAX (SA Express). Nzimela too is a woman of formidable capabilities. She spent from 1996 to 2003 with SAA, starting as a research analyst, rising to EVP Global Passenger Services in 2001, and then EVP Global Sales and Voyager in 2002, until her transfer to SAX as CEO in October 2003. With six years running an airline quite successfully, preceded by seven in SAA, she is logically the strongest contender of the four but observers say she may lack the political clout.

 

Of course political gerrymandering is the last thing our critically ill national carrier requires. It doesn’t need government-type thinking. It doesn’t need political imperatives dictating route development. It needs routes on which it will make profits - every unprofitable route is funded by taxpayers.

  

SAA needs to build expertise in its management and to gain and maintain depth in its human capital. It needs a leader who understands the nuances of airline economics. It needs someone to run it like a profit-driven private business. Until it gets a brace of interventions such as these, it will remain the sick man of the Southern skies.

So who’s up for the job? The announcement will probably be made simultaneously with the announcement of SAA’s annual results. Naming a new CEO would provide a welcome diversion from what promise to be a sickly set of results. Â