I spoke to one of the strategic managers for South African Airways and he said, if you want to sabotage the CEO just go and mess up Zimbabwe so that it bans South African Airways from plying on the Harare – Johannesburg route and the job is gone. In addition to the six aeroplanes they put on the Zimbabwe Johannesburg route, they have put a direct flight from Harare to Durban and another from Harare to Cape Town and they are making a profit.
Mr. Speaker Sir, I flew to Johanesburg, South Africa with Hon. Paradza over the Christmas holiday and the flight was full.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Which one?
HON. MARIDADI: South African Airways. It was full and there were people on standby. The reason we used South African Airways is that, I personally inquired from Air Zimbabwe and I was told that they were not online and were going to come back to me during the course of the day to confirm if they had seats available. That did not happen during the day. I went back again the following day to make another inquiry and they did not come back to me. For the reason that I wanted to travel on a particular day, I had no choice but to go with South African Airways. On that particular day, a friend of mine also wanted to fly Johannesburg but could not do so because the flight did not take off.
What it tells me is that the aeroplane could not start the engine; the engine could not start – [Laughter.] – As if that is not bad enough Mr. Speaker, when you fly on South African Airways from Harare to Johannesburg, your departure tax is built into your ticket price. However, when you fly Air Zimbabwe, you must pay your departure tax separately because it is supposed to go to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). The CAA said if Air Zimbabwe bills the departure tax together with the airfare, they will not remit it. What it means is that Civil Aviation Authority would rather do business with Qatar, Ethiopian Airlines or South African Airways than with Air Zimbabwe. That means there is something fundamentally wrong with Air Zimbabwe.
Mr. Speaker Sir, South African Airlines has 63 aeroplanes. In 2015, they had 72, which means they have sold of nine others. The oldest of the nine which they sold was 16 years old. The reason is that when it is above 15 years old, it is very expensive to operate. Air Zimbabwe operates an aeroplane which is 30 years old, it is old, and that is ancient. I have a friend of mine who is a pilot and he says today’s aeroplanes can be flown by any fool. All you need to do is to be able to take off and when you reach the flying altitude, you can sit back. The aeroplane will maneuver itself and land itself. However, with Air Zimbabwe, you hear the pilots practically calculating using pencils saying, I am 100 metres above the ground and so on – [Laughter.] – they will be talking all the way. It is like they are at a beer drink all the way.
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