Iden Wetherell
AIR Zimbabwe, at the centre of a row last year over President Robert Mugabe’s habit of commandeering planes, flew into another storm this week as pilots intensified a strike for better pay which grounded the entire fleet.
It couldn’t have come at a worse time for the airline. Internal management documents reveal the national carrier is close to bankruptcy and unable to meet many of its current commitments.
The pilots are seeking salaries comparable with other aircrews in the region. But acting managing director Peter Chikumba said in a recent confidential memorandum that “we cannot afford to increase the current salaries at all as this may lead to the ultimate closure of the corporation”.
In a related document on profitability he said the airline was “technically bankrupt” and could not meet its obligations in full if asked to do so. Although he denied this week that Air Zimbabwe was broke, he admitted it faced “severe difficulties of an operational nature”.
Getting off the ground appears to be one of them. Planes were spread across the Harare airport apron this week as pilots refused to go back. “We cannot continue being hoodwinked, bluffed and tricked forever,” their spokesman Captain Phillip Mutambirwa said.
Air Zimbabwe has leased aircraft from South Africa’s Nationwide airline but these were unable to leave Harare when another South African charter containing ammunition crash-landed, blocking the runway.
To compound the airline’s problems, a Boeing 707 which Mugabe had taken for a visit to Europe last week caught fire on take-off from Shannon in Ireland disabling it for several months and obliging the presidential party, in a novel development, to catch a scheduled flight home.
Presidential requisitioning of jets has caused havoc to the airline’s schedules and seen passengers stranded at tourist resorts. Increased competition has also eaten into the company’s bottom line while unprofitable routes to Botswana and Cyprus drain resources.
Despite management’s attempts to put a brave face on things, the situation is likely to get worse. The premature termination of a lease on two Fokker 50 aircraft, acquired in what members of parliament said were questionable circumstances and found unsuitable for Zimbabwean conditions, will cost the airline over R50-million in penalties.
Chikumba said he will make savings by reviewing the lease on the London office which cost R3-million last year and by renegotiating an expensive catering contract.
This will be an interesting test of his resolve. The contract, worth R20-million, is operated by a company owned by the ruling Zanu-PF party.
Air Zimbabwe’s management sees promised commercialisation – a preliminary to privatisation – as holding the key to survival. But with wanderlust still evident and without a plane of his own, Mugabe may find it difficult to let go of such a convenient asset.