Mango boss parachutes out of SAA
Mango CEO is last man standing at Myeni’s SAA and may now be moving to Fastjet
Nico Bezuidenhout, CEO of SAA’s low-cost carrier Mango, is being head-hunted to lead London-listed airline Fastjet, which has a focus on low-cost airfares in Africa.
While Fastjet may seem like a good opportunity for Bezuidenhout, the reality is that he is being pushed out by the turbulence and tension within SAA. Remarkably, Bezuidenhout (40) is the last man standing of the original executive at SAA since the beginning of Dudu Myeni’s divisive reign as chair of the loss-making airline.
The others have either resigned, remained on interminable suspension, or had trumped-up disciplinary hearings which insiders say have been orchestrated from within the airline’s boardroom.
Many of those insiders point the finger at Myeni, who also chairs the Jacob Zuma Trust and remains close to the president, but is seemingly intent on playing more of a hands-on executive role rather than the nonexecutive role for which she was hired.
Insiders have told the Financial Mail that Bezuidenhout plans to quit soon, perhaps as early as this week. When contacted, he declined to elaborate on his plans. Mango spokesman Hein Kaiser also declined to comment.
If Bezuidenhout leaves it will be a blow for Mango, which has become SA’s largest domestic carrier despite being only 10 years old (it marked this “birthday” last month).
In a statement celebrating this anniversary, Bezuidenhout is quoted as saying that the airline would “soar even higher” in the coming decade. With the talk of his leaving, this trajectory seems less assured.
For Fastjet, which has also been through its share of turbulence in recent years, this will be quite a coup.
It’s well known that Fastjet has been searching for a replacement for Ed Winter, who resigned in March after a bitter feud with Fastjet shareholder and cofounder Stelios Haji-Ioannou.
Haji-Ioannou, who founded UK low-cost airline EasyJet in the 1990s, was said to have lost confidence in Winter. Since it launched in SA three years back, Fastjet has had many setbacks. Experts believe it planned to expand too quickly, while underestimating the challenges of starting a low-cost panAfrican airline. Fastjet’s nonexecutive chairman, Colin Child, has been acting as executive chairman until a new CEO is found, the company told the Financial Mail.
But the company refused to confirm whether Bezuidenhout was their man.
“Head-hunters were appointed to search for a new CEO and . . . Fastjet Plc is making good progress in searching for a new CEO. We are unable to comment on any speculation as to the identity of any specific candidates at this time,” a spokesman said.
Whether Bezuidenhout can replicate the success he had with Mango, which always had support from government, remains to be seen.
Mango doesn’t publish detailed financial statements, but claims it has been profitable for eight years out of the past 10, generating R800m in free cash flow.
Either way, it’s clear that Bezuidenhout — who acted as CEO of SAA twice in recent years — won’t miss Myeni.
SAA executives have complained privately that Myeni has repeatedly interfered with operational matters, undermining their role and contributing to a dysfunctional airline where her word
‘‘ WE ARE UNABLE TO COMMENT ON ANY SPECULATION AS TO THE IDENTITY OF ANY SPECIFIC CANDIDATES AT THIS TIME FASTJET SPOKESMAN
appears to be final — irrespective of the views of the rest of the board.
In particular, Myeni was extensively involved in plans to consolidate SAA’s expensive short-term debt, as well as a controversial deal to swap the airline’s shorthaul aircraft for long-range ones.
Financially, SAA remains a mess. Besides being bankrupt, propped up only by expensive short-term loans backed by a state guarantee, the airline needs another R5bn before its auditors will sign off its financial accounts for the last year to March.
This has created a stalemate, as Pravin Gordhan’s national treasury has refused to provide further financial support for SAA until the board has been reconstituted with competent board members who are committed to clean corporate governance.
Though treasury hasn’t said as much, the implication is that Myeni’s departure would be a first step to meeting these goals.
But even once the financials are fixed, a longer-term problem will be to plug the skills gap that has been created in recent months by an exodus of talent. In SAA’s commercial division, for example, six senior executives have left in the past year.
This hasn’t been helped by a campaign to racially transform the airline, an ongoing investigation by the Hawks priority crimes directorate and Myeni’s apparent diktat that SAA staff members should be vetted by the State Security Agency.
Once Bezuidenhout goes, SAA will be without a permanent CEO, chief financial officer, chief commercial officer, chief strategy officer, head of human resources and CEO of Mango.
SAA seems to believe these departures aren’t a concern, saying that competent people have been placed in acting positions while full-time staffers are being hired.
“[For] all positions where executives have left, the airline has been able to appoint second-tier managers,” it said recently. But with Bezuidenhout out of the picture, the risk is that Mango will follow its parent company into suspended animation.