New Chairperson for LAM

24 April 2011

Maputo — A General Meeting of Mozambique’s publicly owned air company LAM (Mozambique Airlines) on Friday appointed Teodoro Waty as the new chairperson of the LAM Board of Directors.

He replaces Jose Viegas, who had been at the head of the company for the past 12 years.

The statement from the General Meeting stressed that the change of chairperson had nothing to do with last week’s announcement by the European Commission that all air companies registered in Mozambique are banned from entering European Union airspace.

The European Commission criticism was not directed at LAM, or any other Mozambican airline, but against the shortcomings of the regulator, the Mozambican Civil Aviation Institute (IACM).

Also on Friday, Transport Minister Paulo Zucula met with the LAM management, including Viegas, and stressed that Viegas had wanted to resign three years ago, but stayed on, at the request of the government, in order to oversee the restructuring of LAM.

“The fact that Jose Viegas is leaving just after LAM has been banned from European airspace is just an unfortunate coincidence”, said Zucula. “He’s been wanting to leave the post for two or three years, but we asked him to stay on to head the restructuring of the company. It was agreed that he would cease being chairperson after the Maputo/Lisbon flights were inaugurated, and that has now happened”.

Zucula reiterated the government’s confidence in the LAM management team that Viegas had headed, and stressed that the departure of Viegas should in no way be interpreted as “punishment” for the European ban.

The LAM twice weekly flight to Lisbon is not affected by the ban, since the plane, crew and maintenance for the flights are provided by a Portuguese company, Euro Atlantic.

Teodoro Waty is a former chairperson of the Maputo Municipal Assembly, and the current chair of the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Commission of the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic. He is also a member of the Political Commission of the ruling Frelimo Party.

Waty was not the first choice for the job. Indeed, last week some of the Mozambican media confidently announced that Jussub Nurmamad, chairperson of the Mozambican Stock Exchange, would replace Viegas. However, Nurmamad flatly rejected the offer made by IGEPE (the government’s Institute for the Management of State Holdings).

The LAM meeting also appoint a new Chief Executive Officer for the company. She is Marlene Manave, an experienced LAM manger, who was part of the company’s restructuring unit.

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