President Mnangagwa hires a private jet on his numerous foreign travels because it is cheaper and does not disrupt Air Zimbabwe scheduled ...
President Mnangagwa hires a private jet on his numerous
foreign travels because it is cheaper and does not disrupt Air Zimbabwe
scheduled flights.
“Then coming to the Bulawayo issue, the aircraft you are
talking about came in on Thursday and has been here preparing to take the
president to South Africa for the Sadc Solidarity Conference on Western Sahara,
scheduled for 25-26 March 2019 in Pretoria.
“We booked the aircraft to be here until it brings back the
president from the summit on Tuesday. If you were going to check, the aircraft
is currently at the tarmac of the domestic flights and it is cheaper to hire
the aircraft for days than to hire it on the day when the president wants to
fly out,” Mnangagwa’s spokesman, George Charamba told the Standard.
“Let me pre-empt you; I know you would want to ask why not
use scheduled flights for the president. Here is the tricky issue. One, it is
very risky to do that for both the president and the airline. In this case, we
are talking of a national airline which has one aircraft to service all its
routes. If the president was to use a scheduled flight, it means that all the
luggage in that flight will be opened and subjected to search by our security
systems,” he said.
‘This inconveniences the reputation of the airline and the
passengers. Also the passengers themselves will have to be subjected to those security
systems and this definitely will lead in some people leaving the airline and it
loses business. Also when the president is flying, he would fly in the business
class and no one will be allowed there.”
Just imagine you as a reporter you are supposed to fly to
South Africa and you have bought your business class ticket and just because
the president has joined the flight, you will have to move to the economy
class. This will definitely lead to some people abandoning the airline. Remember
the aviation business works on a patronage system and losing one customer is a
big blow, which no airline would risk.”
“So we look at all those factors and if you are to look at
the opportunity cost, you are bound to agree with us that hiring an aircraft
for the president is much better than going through all those challenges. Key
to this, the scheduled flight will have to change its time to suit the
president. This is dangerous for any airline. Talking about the Bulawayo trip
and the idea that the president could have used a scheduled flight, it meant
that he would need to divert the Harare-Johannesburg route to go via Bulawayo.
Do you think people were going to agree to that? So really let us be realistic
when we discuss some of these issues.”
The deputy chief secretary also defended the use of private
jets by Vice-Presidents Constantino Chiwenga and Kembo Mohadi and other senior
government officials whenever they fall ill, saying it was part of their
conditions of service.
“This is part of conditions of service for the top three.
Even ministers, if their conditions of service stipulate that they should be
airlifted whenever they need medical attention at the expense of the state, it
must be done. Even top civil servants, if their benefits include airlifting,
there is nothing that we can do to change that, it is in their contracts,”
Charamba said.
COMMENTS