Transport Minister Barbara Creecy will recommend the third-ranked of the three candidates for CEO at South African Airways (SAA), after intervention by Deputy President Paul Mashatile and the ANC’s deployment committee, according to News24
Yesterday Cabinet was due to consider a memorandum from a sub-committee motivating the appointment of John Lamola to the top job at SAA, despite his scoring the lowest in evaluations.
Months after the board had decided on its preference – the current Kenya Airways CEO Allan Kilavuka – Mashatile and Creecy conducted their own interviews of Kilavuka and Lamola on 15 January 2025.
Philip Saunders, who scored highest, was not interviewed that day. It is not clear if he was invited to be interviewed.
Dumisani Sangweni, the chairperson of the SAA board’s remuneration committee, said there “was no pressure on the board from any quarter …. Ultimately, the appointment of the CEO is the minister’s prerogative.”
Saunders, who has acted as SAA CEO, scored the highest in competency overview evaluations – 92 out of 126. Kilavuka came in second, with a score of 88, while Lamola – interim CEO at SAA since May 2022 – scored 65.
Kilavuka’s extensive airline CEO experience was taken into account. Saunders had not previously held a CEO position in aviation. Lamola had “significantly less experience in senior executive position (sic) in an airline compared to the other two candidates”.
A report by the consultancy that put forward the three men held that “His risk aversion and under-developed business and financial acumen could [hold] him back, however, from thinking at the level required to lead a comprehensive and successful turnaround.”
In 2017, the Sunday Times reported that Lamola’s name had been found on a list of names the Guptas had drawn up for appointment to the board of the Airports Company of South Africa (ACSA).