South Africa: Lamola's Exit Exposes SAA's Shaky Foundations and Questionable Profits

By Lindsey Schutters

There seemed to be no surprise that SAA group chief Prof John Lamola had resigned, but the timing -- a Friday -- was telling. The national carrier needs serious help.

South African Airways (SAA) group chief Professor John Lamola resigned on Friday amid a slew of problems at the national carrier.

While SAA said that it had achieved an operating profit of R336-million and a group net profit of R155-million for the financial year ending 31 March 2025 -- results of which were published in February 2026 (no, that's not a typo) -- the Auditor-General of South Africa, Tsakani Maluleke's report for the same period cannot find evidence of this claimed financial health.

Even in its own press release for the 2024/2025 annual financial results, the organisation claimed revenue of R8.838-billion, while the integrated annual report shows a revenue of R9.266-billion.

The Auditor-General also highlighted that while the national carrier is crowing about profits, it actually missed its target financial sustainability Ebitda of R241-million by quite a wide margin, achieving a loss of R433-million instead.

A stall manoeuvre

Since President Cyril Ramaphosa's sunsetting of the Department of Public Enterprises, administration and oversight of SAA has fallen under the gaze of the Department of Transport and the watchful eye...

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