The General Manger of the national airline, Ben Dahwa has confirmed the departure of Air Botswana’s Commercial Services Director, Joe Motse.
Motse joined Air Botswana in 1996 as a Management Trainee and worked through various ranks before leaving in 2004 as a Marketing Manager. In 2008, he was elected as a Member of the Board for Air Botswana until 2010 when he later rejoined the Airline as the Director, Commercial. Previously Motse was with Botswana Tourism Organization (BTO), Cresta and Debswana.
Motse’s departs exactly a year after the arrival of Dahwa who was appointed in May last year. Before Dahwa was appointed, Motse was tipped to take over the top post which the government later decided to delocalise by appointing Dahwa, born Zimbabwean, nationalized South African. ┬áThe then AB board is said to have been divided over who to appoint to the top post between the then Finance Director Mphi Tlhomelang, who was acting GM and Motse.
However, Dahwa was roped in at the beginning of May 2014 after the departure of substantive general manager Sakhile Reiling, who terminated her contract of employment and relocated to South Africa.
The departure of Motse comes hardly two years after the national airline also lost one of its top executives, Paul Champane to the then newly created government diamond selling entity, Okavango Diamond Company (ODC). Champane was the Head of Information Technology (IT) responsible for implementing the ailing airline’s e-commerce strategy and other online advancements.
SADDENED BY DEPARTURE
Confirming the latest incident last week, Dahwa said he was saddened by the departure of Motse, whom he said gave him (Dahwa) a warm welcome to Air Botswana. Dahwa took up the Air Botswana top post twelve months ago and walked right into a media firestorm. He joined Air Botswana when uncertainties about the airline over the past few years have created some challenges. Air Botswana was making headlines for all the wrong reasons: substandard services, delayed flights and aircraft unavailability resulting in severe disruptions. However, indications are that the new man at the helm has been able to calm the storm.
“The statistics are very good. They are reassuring. In the past ten months, on time performance has improved by between 15 and 20 percent,” he said, further vouching that the airline customers will experience schedule reliability and on time performance target north of 85 percent. Dahwa however feels that at some point, the statistics should take second place to real life experience.
“I want to have a culture where we talk less, brag less and let our customers compliment us about the experience we give them; cleanliness, professionalism, customer service and reliability.”
Key amongst Dahwa’s tasks at Air Botswana is improvement of the airline’s efficiency and current business operations as well as turning it into a sustainable business operating at world class standards.
