15 foreign airlines seek to partner AirZim

Oliver Kazunga Senior Business Reporter
FIFTEEN foreign airlines have shown keen interest in partnering Air Zimbabwe as the government seeks to turn around the ailing national carrier.

About $260 million is required to recapitalise Air Zimbabwe that continues to battle a $298 local and foreign debt overhang. The parastatal owes about $272 million to local creditors.

Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Obert Mpofu told a reception hosted for board members, management and staff under his ministry on Thursday, that Cabinet has endorsed engagement of partners to revamp the ailing parastatal.

“Cabinet has agreed that we look for partners for Air Zimbabwe and its balance sheet, which is in the negative, will be assumed by the government. Currently, we’ve got 15 airlines that want to partner us and we’ll update you once Cabinet discussions on the matter are finalised,” Minister Mpofu said.

He said a number of people were of the view that the flag carrier was performing well following the adoption of an open skies policy by the government.

“We’ve Air Zimbabwe and a lot of people think the airline is doing well as we’ve allowed more airlines to fly into the country. They’re coming in because we’ve allowed competition, which has also helped in the reduction of fares and encouraged people to use air travel. So we’re comfortable but we’re inviting applications to run an airline because the risk isn’t for the minister but yours (investor),” said the minister.

He said while Air Zimbabwe and the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) were performing poorly, most parastatals and departments under his ministry were doing well.

These include the Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe (TSCZ), the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (Zinara) and the Road Motor Services (RMS).

Minister Mpofu also said the Central Mechanical Engineering Department (CMED) was doing well despite being owed about $20 million by different organisations.

“Our (Zinara) collections have doubled after we took over road collections from the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra). Not that Zimra hasn’t been doing a very good job but because of the state-of-the-art tolling systems that Zinara installed. The system is so efficient that every collection is reflected on hourly basis and with this technology you can’t cheat.

“Through revenue collected from the tollgates, look at the roads. We’ve done Mutare-Plumtree highway and the airport roads. We thought we should start with airports, which are the ones exposed to tourists. TCZ has come up with all sorts of aggressive measures to reduce road carnage and we also have got RMS, a company that had almost ground to a halt but it’s now doing very well,” said Minister Mpofu.

On challenges facing NRZ that include a 11-month salary backlog and working capital constraints, the minister pleaded with the railway workers to be patient while “something” was being worked out.

“At NRZ we’ve challenges such as the non-payment of salaries. Yesterday (Wednesday), I had a full briefing with the board chairman (Alvord Mabena) on the challenges facing the railways company. I plead with you (workers) to be patient. We want to assure you that something will come out soon to address those issues,” he said.

This week, the disgruntled NRZ employees staged a demonstration demanding their 11-month salary arrears.

Minister Mpofu assured NRZ employees that no one will be retrenched despite the challenges facing the entity.

He said the parastatal was still looking for money to rehabilitate the railways infrastructure.

Negotiations for a $750 million loan facility with the Development Bank of Southern Africa to fund the rehabilitation of NRZ were still in progress, he added.

In September last year, Minister Mpofu said the bank had agreed in principle to bail out the troubled parastatal.

He urged workers in state-owned entities to shun corruption saying the government did not tolerate mismanagement or corruption as the parastatals belonged to the public who expect effective and efficient service delivery.

“We want to continuously monitor the performance of our parastatals and we’ve people that have been arrested for doing things in an unprofessional manner,” he said.

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