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is the national airline which literally takes the country’s flag to other parts of the world.
This makes these flag bearers carriers of not only people, the flag but a certain construct that Zimbabwe would want to project for itself.
Sad, and really sad, that the idyll that flew our bodies and souls, our humanism and nationhood over picturesque mountains, over boggy marshes, over silver-lined crowds and literary over the world, is bleeding to death.
Even back in the village: that land of milk, honey and dust, or Guruve if you like, we all loved seeing our aluminum birds fly past. There we would all scramble from beneath our grass-thatched mud-and-pole huts to just watch in awe, a plane with our flag flying past like a majestic eagle, marshalling its territory but we have noticed there is something amiss.
Gone are the days, when we would, the young, the old and the middle-aged alike, fold our hands on our backs, squint one eye or the other to get to see who is inside the plane. Of course, we only figured what people were inside but what made us proud was our flag. Our Zimbabwe, our nation, our country!
Those privileged urbanites in the know, and who unlike the villagers have real chances to board the planes, say an airline with good service, and beautiful people, does itself a lot of good in telling a story about its home country.
Granted, there is a lot of suavity and refinement for many an airline crew but a good, hospitable people often go the extra mile in showing warmth, professionalism and care.
After all, the airlines not only shuttle business and its people between and among destinations.
They are also a huge business in themselves which contribute significantly to the Gross Domestic Product of a country.
All this makes our flagship airline Air Zimbabwe a very important player both in practical business terms and symbolically.
As we speak, there are no Air Zimbabwe flights soaring the skies.
In fact, even if we were we to put up one today, it would be shunned by some travellers because of its unreliability, and quite justifiably so.
The airline has been crippled by seemingly never-ending strikes that at some point forced the company to hire some private planes to take care of its travellers, which is both an ignominy as much as an inconvenience and a costly avenue.
But where did things go wrong at the once proud airline, which now does not have a flag to fly nor pride to parade?
This villager has followed events at the national airline unfold to where they are today. What is at stake is our nation.
Zambia, our northern neighbour, failed and lost it. They no longer have a national airline. All they have are fragmented little private airlines and if we are not careful, that is exactly the route we are following.
The airline must be run professionally and by competent people.
Management must not be top heavy as emphasis must be on service delivery and not a bloated top that chews or gobbles billions of dollars in sweet-nothings.
The ageless village soothsayer says if anyone thought the problem was with the former chief executive Dr Peter Chikumba, that person is lost.
The soothsayer contends that even with a CEO from Mars, the airline will not prosper until the operational system change.
Until everyone in that system appreciates the problems faced and becomes part of the solution.
The solution, says the soothsayer, is not in the villages in Dande, Checheche, Muchekatyawora, Tsholotsho or Chiendambuya but at Air Zimbabwe and Ministry of Transport.
The village soothsayer is not in any way a mathematician but just telling him that the internationally prevailing industry staffing ratio is one aircraft to 85 employees, yet at Air Zimbabwe the rate is at one plane to 280, means there is “something terri-rri-rri-rribly wrong”.
The pilots who are normally quiet and just do the flight talk, have let the cat out of the bag in a report made to a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee, which by the way the soothsayer says has competent Honourables, unlike some of the board members.
Whichever way, the soothsayer says the problems will soon be over, the pilots living happily-ever-after and our flag flying high again and not at half-mast.
Having exhausted village English, this villager is at a loss as to when the problems at Air Zimbabwe will end? The problems defy description, they defy village diction, they defy logic but demand solutions.
Solutions now and not tomorrow! Cry our beloved Air Zimbabwe!
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