The year is 2025. The department of public enterprises has just announced the name of SAA’s newest interim CEO, appointed by a recently constituted board, which has been tasked with the implementation of a rescue plan. It follows a strategic review, necessitated by a fallout with previous management over continued losses at SAA’s operating subsidiaries. Sound far-fetched?Consider that in 2021, SAA’s interim board has just named chartered accountant Thomas Kgokolo as its fifth CEO, interim or otherwise, in five years.He has no experience running an airline. Nor does a single member of SAA’s present board. Institutional memory has all but vanished.SAA subsidiary Mango has announced that it will have to stop flying and may be unable to pay the salaries of its 500 or so employees from May. Funds promised by its shareholder have failed to materialise, despite months of wrangling.Mango’s imminent grounding comes as no surprise to industry insiders, who have long argued that the financials...
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