South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) announced on Monday that Zakes Myeza will be stepping down as CEO.

This comes after concerns had been raised about the separate roles of the CEO of SACAA and the commissioner for Civil Aviation, which led to Transport Minister Jeff Radebe issuing a policy directive calling for the positions to be merged in line with international best practice.

It said that the loss of Myeza's "decisive leadership and expertise" was "regretted".

SACAA distanced Myeza's resignation, and the decision to restructure, from the controversial grounding of airline operator Nationwide, following the authority's concerns over the air-worthiness of a number of the operator's aircraft.

A new CEO or commissioner was expected to be announced in due course.

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