Sanral’s Alli calls it a day

Sanral's controversial CEO Nazir Alli is retiring as he turns 65 in August. File photo: Thobile Mathonsi

Sanral's controversial CEO Nazir Alli is retiring as he turns 65 in August. File photo: Thobile Mathonsi

Published Jul 14, 2015

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Johannesburg - The South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) is looking for a new chief executive officer.

And no, the controversial Nazir Alli, who was largely responsible for the dreaded e-tolls, hasn’t been fired, as many motorists would have hoped, but is retiring as he turns 65 next month.

But he will still be around for the next few months. His last day in the office will be determined by the minister of transport, in consultation with Sanral, after the new appointment and a handover period, Roshan Morar, chairman of the Sanral board, said.

Alli has been at the helm of the organisation since its inception in 1998 and has endured much criticism and abuse from motorists because he was instrumental in establishing the e-tolls.

Morar said Alli had been at the “forefront of modernising South Africa’s national road network to world-class standards for 17 years, and his impeccable track record speaks for itself”.

Under his leadership, Morar said, Sanral had grown from managing a road network of 7 200km in 1998 to 21 400km, which is expected to grow to 35 000km in the future. “The roads and other related infrastructure that have been built by Sanral under his auspices are of outstanding quality and have won numerous global awards in engineering excellence,” Morar said.

He pointed out that Alli had run the agency in a “prudent and ethical manner with unqualified audit reports for longer than a decade.

“His commitment to the socio-economic transformation agenda ensured that educational institutions grew the next generation of engineers through an extensive programme of scholarships, bursaries and internships to reflect the country’s demographics.”

Through Alli’s active guidance, Sanral launched and sponsored chairs at three universities, with the most recent in science, mathematics and technology education at the University of the Free State. A second chair at the University of Cape Town in transportation planning and engineering was established in 2013 with an endowment from Sanral.

“Although it is a challenge to replace someone of Nazir’s stature, we would like him to enjoy spending time with his family after his selfless service to our country,” Morar added.

The search for the new chief executive had started. The ideal candidate, he said, should be a visionary leader who is also a qualified civil engineer.

He or she must be a person of influence, who will be charged with developing a tactical plan to advance the company’s mission, vision and objectives.

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The Star

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