Asnath Mahapa


Asnath Mahap is a South African pilot. She has flown for United Nations Red Cross and World Food Programme in Central and West Africa. Recently, she was appointed as a spokesperson for Cell C Take a Girl Child to Work Day campaign.

Early Years

Mahapa was born and brought up in Limpopo, a province in the northern part of South Africa.In her first year of study at University of Cape Town, she dropped out to join the flight school.

Career

In March 1998, Mahap began her training as a pilot in Polokwane at G&L Aviation. In that same year, she later moved to Progress Flight Academy to finish obtaining her private pilots license. On 8 October 1999, she acquired her commercial license and since then has worked with renowned organisations. In 2001, She joined the South African Air Force and worked till 2002. Between May 2003 and January 2007, she flew for the United Nations World Food and The Red Cross, mainly operating in Central and West Africa countries. She started flying for South Africa Airways in February 2019 and is now flying internationally as a senior first officer on the Airbus 340. Before that, she also flew for DHL in the Southern African Region.

Awards and Recognitions

She has been recognised and honoured with several awards including:
In 2012, she established the African College of Aviation in Johannesburg, through which she trains and inspires a new generation of Pilots. Unfortunately this flight school did not succeed in training pilots, as no students ever qualified. It ilhad been widely speculated that Asnath personally benefitted from TETA funds that was allocated for pilot training. A case of fraud is being investigated.
Asnath is also one of a handful of pilots at the failing SAA that requested to be treated differently on the basis of her skin color. She and the rest of the group believe that they should be given preferential treatment and skip seniority lists as they are black.