South African Airways appoints Thomas Kgokolo as interim CEO

16 April 2021

Thomas’s appointment takes the business rescue process of SAA one step closer to completion.

South African Airways (SAA) has appointed Thomas Kgokolo as the new interim CEO with effect from13 April, interim board chair Geoff Qhena announced to staff on Wednesday.

SAA has been in business rescue since December 2019 and has been without a CEO since Zuks Ramasia retired as acting CEO a year ago. The last permanent CEO was Vuyani Jarana, who resigned in June 2019.

In a letter to staff, Geoff said that Thomas’s appointment takes the business rescue process of SAA one step closer to completion. The business rescue practitioners had hoped to hand SAA back to its board and management and exit by the end of March.

He said Thomas had 15 years of public sector experience and more than 10 years’ experience at a non-executive director level. He is a qualified chartered accountant and holds an MBA from the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS), where he is also a lecturer in corporate finance.

Prior to joining GIBS, Thomas had acquired experience in strategy, governance and financial roles. He is a non-executive director of Air

Traffic Navigation Services (ATNS) where he also served as interim CEO from 2018 to 2020 and was the chief financial officer at the Competition Commission of South Africa.

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