Joram Gumbo issues statement on Zimbabwe Airways and dualisation of Beitbridge-Harare Road

          THE MINISTER OF TRANSPORT AND INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT (HON. DR. J. M. GUMBO): Mr. Speaker Sir, the first questions were by Hon. Nduna about how many.   Maybe, he was not here.  I stated that the Government of Zimbabwe was buying four aeroplanes – 777 ER.  That is the size of the plane.  I do not think he was here when I stated that but that is the question – [AN HON. MEMBER: What is ER.] – Extended Range, that means it flies 22 hours before it can refill.

          He wanted also to know about Karonga and what is special about her.  She is a legal officer in the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development and those are the people that we use. There is nothing really special about her.  She is just a special person because she works and she is not a board member for CAAZ for your own information.

Then, you wanted to know about COO Simba Chikore and others.  Simba Chikore, I have already and maybe the Hon. Member was not here –  Simba Chikore is Chief Operations Officer of the Zimbabwe Airways.  He was the lead person in the negotiations with four others from the Air Zimbabwe side, we also had people from CAAZ and people from the Ministry itself.  So, it just so happened that the operations for planes are under that section which Air Zimbabwe or Zimbabwe Airways, that the name of Simba Chikore keeps on recurring by the unfortunate thing that he was employed by Air Zimbabwe.  If that is being unfortunate at all – [HON. NDUNA: Inaudible interjection.] –

          THE ACTING SPEAKER:  Order Hon. Nduna, I am not going to give you that chance.  Can you sit down then if you have a further question, I will allow you to do that.  Just take your seat.

          *HON. DR. GUMBO:  Mr. Speaker Sir, Hon. Munengami is saying that Malaysian planes have a bad reputation.  Aeroplanes are made by Boeing and the people who allow people to buy airplanes are the ones that made them.

 I do not know Hon. Speaker, that since I bought a Mercedes Benz, if I am involved in an accident then they should not be bought because they kill people.  There has never been any aeroplane that has not been involved in a crash.  What I read and what I remember in this country was because there were wars, one aeroplane was shot down and the other one has not been found.  That same interpretation should not be applied to everything.  There are several Boeing 777 that are flying the world over – [AN HON. MEMBER:  Inaudible interjection.] –  I have difficulties in trying to answer in a satisfactory manner because I do not want to look down upon people who make contributions.  I respect you and in that regard, please respect me as well.  Thank you.

Hon. Maridadi came back and said the planes were decommissioned.  The planes had never been decommissioned.  It is not true that the planes were decommissioned. Hon. Maridadi, if you want to be educated on that, come and I will walk you through the issue. Malaysia sold its planes because it was superstitious and they had many other types of planes that they decided to dispose those ones. We do not want to lie to each other and I respect you Hon. Maridadi.

          Mr. Speaker Sir, I do not know whether I should continue to repeat this because I have already said the shareholder and owner of Zimbabwe Airways is the Government of Zimbabwe. All else you are talking about are workers and there are no other shareholders for Zimbabwe Airways save the Government of Zimbabwe.

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