First Officer Tebogo Lekalakala Picture: Supplied First Officer Tebogo Lekalakala Picture: Supplied
Cape Town – The deaths of three South African Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) officials in a plane crash near George has been described as a major setback for transformation in an aviation industry that lacks and urgently needs it.
Captain Thabiso Tolo, First Officer Tebogo Lekalakala and Flight Inspector Gugu Comfort Mnguni were remembered during a memorial service in Pretoria yesterday.
They were killed in the CAA Flight Inspections Unit aircraft on January 23, when it crashed shortly after take-off from George airport. A probe is under way to establish the circumstances leading to the incident.
Tolo qualified in 2013 as captain and had 4 959 hours of flying to his credit. Among others, he was the first black captain of the Flight Inspection Unit.
Lekalakala had 1 050 hours of flying to her credit. She performed her last training as flight safety simulator instructor in San Antonio in the US. She was a co-pilot, and the first black woman to fly for the Flight Inspection Unit in 2019.
Mnguni, a flight inspector, had over 1 300 flying hours to his credit. He completed the Global Navigation Satellite System for Aviation at Eurocontrol, in Luxembourg, and was trained on the Flight Inspection System at the CARNAC 30 in France.
Mnguni also became the first black flight inspector for the Flight Inspection Unit in 2013.
Speaking at the service, CAA director Poppy Khoza said: “As we gather here to say goodbye to them, I would like to speak in celebration of their short but impactful lives.
“Here are lives that demand notice, lives that exemplified brilliance. Lives so young, but yet so impactful. We worked with them, and we served with them, we saw them soar to greater heights, our beacons - they made us so proud. What a pull of heartstrings this has been.
“The trio is irreplaceable, the positions can be filled, but they will never be filled by another Tebogo, Thabiso and Gugu.”
In 2013, the CAA celebrated the very first calibration mission to be undertaken by an all-black crew.
“This first black crew was captained by Thabiso Tolo, with First Officer Romeo Sease and flight inspector Gugu Mnguni, and on that day history was made in South Africa,” said Khoza.
“We are deeply saddened to have lost colleagues of this calibre, more so that they were lost all at once. If we could reverse the clock, we would tell them one more time of the impact they made to the organisation, to me as a person, and to the nation as a whole.”
Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula said the loss of the three represents a major setback in efforts to transform the sector and open up opportunities for the previously disadvantaged and the youth.
“To lose a pioneering and all-African crew who were the first in their respective areas of expertise is a loss to the nation.
“While we mourn their passing, we must equally celebrate their lives. As we celebrate their great achievements as trailblazers, we must find inspiration in the knowledge that they were head and shoulders above their peers,” Mbalula said.