Cabinet approved the appointment of Dr. John Tambi and Mr. Anthony Dixon as members of the South African Airways (SAA) Board at its meeting in Cape Town yesterday. Cabinet also approved the retention of the following Board members, Ms Duduzile Myeni (Chairperson) and Ms Yakhe Kwinana.

The appointments were followed by two Special General Meetings of the SAA Board today. At the first special general meeting, the resignations of six Board members were considered and adopted.  This was followed by another Special General Meeting where the new Board members, Dr. Tambi and Mr. Dixon, were formally appointed as members. I would be failing if I did not refer to the resignations of the Board members. In accepting their resignations, I wish to convey my gratitude to those members for their time and effort spent in trying to address the challenges facing the airline. I wish them well in their future endeavours. It is well known that SAA has been a loss-making airline for the past few years and my intervention is aimed to stabilise the situation.

Mr. Dixon is a Chartered Accountant. He obtained a CTA qualification from the University of Natal in 1974 and has 29 years experience in accounting and auditing at Coopers Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers). His extensive experience in corporate affairs, auditing and accounting is expected to assist the Board to achieve the turn-around strategy, while also addressing the challenges of poor corporate governance at the airline.

Dr. Tambi obtained a PhD and MSc from the Polytechnic Institute of New York University in 1990 and 1985 respectively, a MBA from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 1983, a BSc from Indiana State University in 1981 and a CPL/IR from Oxford Air Training School in 1976. His extensive experience in project management, planning, engineering with specialisation in the transport sector is expected to assist the Board to achieve the desired outcomes of the turn-around strategy and the consolidation of the airline’s assets.

Issued by Government