Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) has appointed its former chief financial officer, Siphamandla Mthethwa, as chief executive, effective 1 November. Cabinet approved the appointment on 23 September. It ends a four-month period in which the state-owned airport operator had no permanent head.
Mthethwa is a chartered accountant. He joined ACSA as CFO on 1 May 2020, when Covid-19 lockdowns had grounded flights and emptied terminals. He managed the company’s funding and liquidity through a period in which it posted a pre-tax loss of R1.5 billion in 2022. He resigned in 2023 to join ArcelorMittal South Africa as CFO, but left the steelmaker after 16 days, citing personal reasons. Before ACSA, he was CFO of Sentech and held finance roles in banking and mining.
He returns to a far stronger balance sheet. Earlier this month, ACSA reported that revenue for the year to 31 March 2026 rose 11.6% to R8.81 billion. Net profit increased to R1.20 billion from R1.14 billion, the company’s third consecutive profitable year since the pandemic.
| Financial year | Revenue | Net result |
|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | R6.0bn | Loss of R466m |
| 2023/24 | R7.0bn | Profit of R472m |
| 2024/25 | R7.89bn | Profit of R1.14bn |
| 2025/26 | R8.81bn | Profit of R1.20bn |
Passenger traffic drove the gains. ACSA handled 20.6 million departing passengers in 2025/26, up 8.5%. International traffic has returned to pre-pandemic levels and regional traffic stands at 104%, but domestic travel remains at 97%. CFO Luzuko Mbotya has linked the domestic lag to GDP growth of about 1.1% and high unemployment. OR Tambo, Cape Town International and King Shaka International handle about 90% of the network’s passengers, and the growth is putting pressure on capacity at Cape Town.
Board chairperson Irvin Phenyane said Mthethwa returns to an organisation that is rebuilding from a position of financial strength. He said the new chief executive’s task is to consolidate the recovery, improve operations and invest in airport infrastructure. The first item on Mthethwa’s agenda is the board-approved capital programme. At its results, ACSA unveiled a R15-billion capital expenditure plan, after spending R1.1 billion on infrastructure in 2025/26, up from R861 million a year earlier.
Charles Shilowa, who has been acting chief executive since 1 July, will remain in the role until Mthethwa takes over. ACSA is 74.6% government-owned and operates South Africa’s nine largest airports.