MP says if you inject $10 billion into Air Zimbabwe today, they will be back asking for more money next year

“Mr. Speaker Sir, it is like somebody who was once a soccer star of the year – for example George Shaya was a soccer star of the year five times, but it does not make him a good coach. You can get someone like Charles Mhlauri who only played division two soccer but he took Zimbabwe to Tunisia form Africa Cup of Nations. 

“So, Mr. Speaker, the Hon. Minister must get good people to run Air Zimbabwe.  Commercialization, yes, but it is not the panacea.  The business model they are using at Air Zimbabwe is a 1976 Ian Smith business model; it does not work in 2017. We are now computerised.  There were no computers in 1976.”

Full contribution

HON. MARIDADI: Thank you Hon. Speaker.  I am unfortunately one of those who is going to try and close the stable door after the horse has bolted because I should have discussed earlier.  That as it may Mr. Speaker, the issue of commercialisation, is something that we should put thought into.  This is for the reason that commercialisation alone is not the panacea to profitability.  It must be linked to good management and a good business model.  It does not really matter what you do, competitiveness, profitability and sustainability of a business are a function of a business model.  Mr. Speaker Sir, a business model is a function of two major matrices, SWOT and your PESTEL, I will not dwell on that.

There are airlines today, which use a Government business model and are profitable. For example, Emirates, Qatar, British Airways (BA), Singapore and Scandinavia, they are all Government-linked and profit making.  What I would like to tell the Hon. Minister is that, throughout the world, there is no transport business which makes huge profit.  Transport is margin business, be it an airline, road transport like buses, lorries or emergency taxis and so on.  For as long as it is transport business, the profit is marginal meaning that it must be run efficiently.  How do you run it efficiently?  Government, especially that of Zimbabwe, has no record of running things efficiently.  Look at all the parastatals under the Government.  Of the 92 or so parastatals, not a single one of them is making a profit.

Mr. Speaker Sir, what has happened?  In 1980, 40% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was contributed by parastatals.  I am talking of Air Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Broadcasting Cooperation (ZBC), National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ), Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) and Cold Storage Commission (CSC).  Today, if we take $10 billion and inject it into Air Zimbabwe, I can guarantee you that next year, they will go to the Minister of Finance and Economic Development seeking bail out money.

The issue of old aeroplanes has nothing to do with management.  We can give Air Zimbabwe all the modern aeroplanes today and next year, those aeroplanes will not have been serviced or insured and they will be grounded.  Mr. Speaker, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of South African Airways, if she/he loses the Harare –Johannesburg route, she or he loses his/her job.  It is the second most lucrative route for South African Airways.  That is why they put six aeroplanes on that route every day.  They have a 0730 hours, 13:30 hourd and a 16:30 hourd flight on a daily basis because they are making a profit.  Air Zimbabwe, who are the owners of the route from Harare to Johannesburg do not have a single flight on that route.  What is going on?

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