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SAA refreshes its brand’s reputation by appointing its first female chief executive officer, Siza MzimelaWorldwide, it seems women are busy taking over one of the most notoriously risky industries, namely commercial aviation – both in the air and in the boardroom. But mention airlines and women in the same sentence, and for most people a pretty woman in uniform with a Hollywood smile still comes to mind: the serving and subservient hostess. Fasten your seat belt or get off your bicycle, for that has been changing rapidly.
For many years, South Africa’s own national carrier South African Airlines (SAA) was the preserve of macho male dominance, offering careers to dapper male pilots and engineers built on the fables of adventure straight out of The Boys’ Own annuals. Women aspiring to a career in the airline industry could think no further than senior hostess, perhaps being put in charge of hostess training, or becoming purser.
For the past two decades, however, women pilots increasingly have been hauling the big Boeings and Airbuses around the country and the globe.
On the ground, things also have been changing, and since September last year, a woman – former politician, diplomat and tourism boss Cheryl Carolus – has been chairperson of SAA.
And now, since the beginning of April, another formidable woman, Siza Mzimela, has joined Carolus in the SAA boardroom as the airline’s new chief executive officer.
Mzimela, though, is no newcomer to the industry nor to SAA, where she has 14 years’ experience.
“We warmly welcome Ms Mzimela as the new CEO of SAA, following an extensive and thorough process to find a suitable candidate for this position. With her extensive experience in the airline industry, and especially her knowledge of the inner workings of SAA, she is the ideal candidate to fulfil the mandate of SAA to be an African airline with global reach,” is how Carolus articulates Mzimela’s appointment.
The new CEO, credited with setting SAA subsidiary SA Express on a spectacular growth path, joins a growing band of women around the world who are changing the way airlines do business.
A few years ago, TIME magazine made a big ado about the appointment of a woman, Shelley Longmuir, as president of one of the world’s most successful airlines, United Airlines. At the time, the magazine noted that every major United States airline had at least one woman in a top executive position and that women had taken over such traditionally male posts as chief financial officer and chief of pilots.
Worldwide, there has been a tendency to increasingly employ women in this difficult industry, perhaps because, as research has shown, women airline executives are successful, as they understand they are in a service industry; while their male colleagues tend to think in terms of engineering, hardware and shuttling around planes efficiently.
For Mzimela, a girl who literally once had her feet in the dust of Swaziland where she studied at university, the sky by no means seems to be the limit. But she took over the helm of SAA just as the airline was starting to emerge from yet another difficult period in its chequered history, and her job certainly will not be easy.
In addition, many in this previously male-dominated industry will be watching closely to see if “a woman” can make it.
Her immediate acting and successful predecessor Chris Smyth excluded, she steps into the shoes of a line of male predecessors who at best obtained mixed results, some of whom were embroiled in a number of unpleasant controversies including excessive golden handshakes, rising losses and bad governance practices.
At the same time, SAA’s fortunes were riding roller coaster.
Mzimela took over from Smyth who had been acting CEO since the departure a year ago of Khaya Ngqula, who was suspended following allegations of bad governance and abuse of SAA’s procurement system. Ngqula has since resigned.
At the time of Mzimela’s appointment in February, Carolus thanked Smyth – who has returned to being general manager of operations – for the good work he had done, and said that Mzimela was arriving at SAA at a time when the airline already was turning around.
But no one has any illusions about the many problems of the preceding years, of which some effects still linger, least of all Mzimela who says that “a certain amount of confidence” had been lost as a result of these.
She indicated that her sights were set on rebuilding proper corporate governance and internal procedures at the airline. But in terms of her mandate, her focus will very much be on taking SAA to new heights as “an African airline with global reach”.
Mzimela was selected from a shortlist of five people after, as Carolus put it, the board had searched for someone with a proven track record, strong financial literacy and the ability to build a winning team. Those requirements Mzimela certainly met.
After graduating with a degree in Economics and Statistics from the University of Swaziland, Mzimela joined the small business and retail division of Standard Bank in 1991. Three years later, she joined Total South Africa as corporate planning analyst, responsible for managing capital projects, before joining SAA in 1996 as research analyst.
Following various promotions at SAA, she became executive vice president of global passenger services in 2001 and later took on responsibility for the airline’s core business global sales and its Voyager loyalty programme. In this capacity, she was involved in setting overall strategic direction for the sales and Voyager team, managing it and reducing costs.
In addition, her responsibilities included the strategic positioning of SAA and optimising alliance partnerships.
However, it was in her job as CEO of SAA’s domestic and regional subsidiary, SA Express, to which she was appointed in 2003, that Mzimela truly made her mark. Under her watch, the airline became the fastest growing regional airline in southern Africa in a highly competitive market. It developed a strong domestic route portfolio, with Mzimela introducing a number of new routes and successfully launching a new airline, Congo Express, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
In 2008 SA Express earnings had grown by 13.8% to R466 million, generating profits of R235.4m under difficult global conditions.
According to Carolus, SA Express remains financially sound. The airline recently relaunched its new brand proposition, “We Fly For You”, which is set to position SA Express as a premier intra-regional African brand.
Carolus also has not ruled out that SAA and SA Express may yet merge, which would bring the regional airline back under Mzimela’s control.
When Mzimela left SA Express, the airline had assets of about R1.4 billion, whereas her new charge SAA has assets of around R16bn.
In addition to these achievements, Mzimela, who is married with two children, is also a board member of South African Tourism and of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls; she served for two years as the chairperson of the Airlines Association of South Africa; and was a finalist in the Nedbank Businesswoman of the Year Award in 2002.
In its official announcement of her appointment, SAA further describes Mzimela as “a leader with substantial hands-on experience and whose positive attitude, strong negotiation skills and business acumen have helped her scale many heights”, while her “personal philosophy and values have led her to succeed, inspire and lead others”.
Things certainly have come a long way since the days when Amelia Earhart was the only woman associated with aviation.
Stef Terblanche
