State-owned armaments manufacturer Denel is appointing an executive team to lead the organisation and bolster its efforts to improve governance, restructure and stabilise the organisation to fulfil its mandate.
- The process to appoint a group chief executive, a chief financial officer (CFO), and a chief audit executive would be completed during the current financial year. Denel has had no fewer than seven acting and permanent chief executives over the past seven years.
- The current acting chief executive, Michael Kgobe, was appointed into the position in September 2022. The current chief financial officer has also been in an acting capacity since 2021.
- Denel has been struggling to pay salaries, suppliers, and service its debt for the better part of the past five years. It has run out of orders for its equipment, depleting revenue streams, and has not been able to fully supply the primary equipment for the South African National Defence Force.
- In March, Denel received R1.8 billion in funding assistance from National Treasury. The group is also in the process of selling some of its remaining non-core assets as part of its turnaround plan.
- Denel currently employs 1,670 people across the group, down from 2,500 last year, and has lost more than 100 senior engineers to foreign companies over the past year.