New CAAB Directors Due In Office
Pauline Dikuelo | Monday August 4, 2014 14:38
“I have been to Cabinet with the proposed names, which they will scrutinise and approve the viable ones which is almost in its final stage. I can assure you that in a month’s time CAAB board of directors will be on duty,” Molefhi told the Shareholder Compact signing ceremony on Monday.
The authority’s old board has been in office despite the expiry of their tenure. But, as Molefhi stated, the old board had to hold fort for the new one for some time, as the selection for a new team took longer than expected.
He said the selection dragged for some time because of the limited human resource in the industry, as there were few people locally with commercial airline experience, which is a criteria for appointment to the CAAB board.
“The selection took a very long time because we had to address some critical issues as there is a limited pool locally to select the board members from. We need someone with experience and can also be active and provide input. We have a few number of people who are conflicted,” he said.
Molefhi added that they encountered challenges of situations where the qualifying individual appears in three boards of directors, something that the government does not approve of. Skilled Batswana based abroad could not take up positions because of the unattractive packages.
“Some who qualify are turned off by the allowance which is not attractive when looking at the scale of the economy. Some even get better offers and resign leaving us with gaps to fill,” the Minister explained.
He found it disappointing that few Batswana take up aviation as most still feel it is an ovation for the rich. He said in their efforts to sustain the Aviation, they have been focusing on re-shaping Air Botswana where a consultancy, which is submitting this week, has been running for the past six months. Molefhi said they are currently facing some critical issues where they have to decide whether to subsidise the aviation or make it domestic.
Earlier this year Ministry of Transport and Communications admitted that the national carrier, Air Botswana have been experiencing some financial meltdown which runs the risk of high schedule disruptions as well as inability to fund its daily operations.
This led to AB recording financial losses and face lots of customer dissatisfaction due to these schedule disruptions.
In the February Budget speech, the Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Kenneth Matambo announced a proposed ‘cash injection’ of P330 million to Air Botswana. The funds, Molefhi stated, were not for re-fleeting but for “supporting management costs”.