Former president Robert Mugabe’s son-in-law, Mr Simba
Chikore used his family ties to manipulate processes, corrupt people and enter
into shady deals involving several stakeholders during his time at the national
airliner, Air Zimbabwe, The Herald reveals today.
Mr Chikore, married to Bona Mugabe, was chief operating
officer of the flag carrier between October 2016 and November 2017. During the time, Mr Chikore controversially incorporated
Zimbabwe Airways as an alternative, debt-free entity funded by Treasury. The
new airline would be owned by an outfit known as Aeronautics Africa Trust
registered on November 13, 2017.
Operationalisation of Zimbabwe Airways was equally murky,
with millions being splurged to conduct daily business, including hiring of
staff, without due process while service providers were engaged without going
to tender.
The Herald is in possession of unimpeachable evidence of
the rot at the national airline in the period between 2016 and 2017 with Mr
Chikore, who was the de facto chief executive officer of the new airline.
Throughout his ill-fated tenure, Mr Chikore misrepresented
himself as a captain while he was a first officer, which disqualified him from
flying, which he did.
He resigned as the Chief Operating Officer following
Operation Restore Legacy that swept aside his father-in-law’s lengthy rule.
Sources close to the developments catalogued the
malfeasance and how Mr Chikore could have been involved in criminal enterprise.
It has also emerged that he, in fact, did not have a contract with Zimbabwe
Airways despite the fact that he called himself Chief Executive Officer.
Uncannily, he did not draw a salary from the entity.
“On the 17th of August 2017, Zimbabwe Airways received $1
million from the RBZ (Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe) which, according to the
business plan prepared by Baker, Tilly Chartered Accountants, was supposed to
help set up the business for six months after which we were to start flying
commercially and earning our revenue and the amount of $1 million would be paid
back to the RBZ,” said one source.
“With the funds the company purchased furniture and office
supplies, desktops, laptops, printers and televisions. The company also used
the funds to pay salaries, rentals, security, construction of the airport
offices as well as other operational costs. None of the services we engaged
went to tender,” the source said.
According to information available, Zimbabwe Airways hired
personnel and engaged service providers in the industry outside of Zimbabwe.
Some of these service providers were Seabury Solutions Systems (a software
company), SITA (a ticketing system vendor), Sigma Aviation Recruitment (to
recruit expatriate post holders), Evers Consulting (to do the manuals required
to apply for the Air Operators Certificate [AOC]).
Under unclear circumstances, Mr Chikore failed to register
the airline for the AOC, which is conducted by the Civil Aviation Authority of
Zimbabwe, and the failure resulted in future losses as the airline was barred
from flying to China and India where it had cargo.
“As the months went on, and we had hired personnel and
expatriates, we still did not engage in the process of getting the AOC from the
Civil Aviation Authority. The application process has five phases, and phase
one states that the entity was to provide the name and credentials of the
accountable officer.
“Simba was reluctant to do this. Firstly, he did not have a
contract of employment from the company, and, secondly, his credentials stated
that he was a first officer, not a captain as he had led all and sundry to
believe. Therefore, months went by and he would not initiate the AOC
application process.”
According to the source, when Zimbabwe Airways engaged
airline insurer Gulf Regent for aircraft handling, health insurance and loss of
licence insurance, he allegedly instructed the insurer to open an offshore
account, in his name, for him in which any excess amounts would be paid into.
However, the company did not render the services, says
their source.
“The employees never received health insurance despite the
RBZ paying around $157 000 per quarter for health.
“In addition, the company did not employ any pilots so the
Loss of Licence Insurance paid by the RBZ was merely another way in which Simba
was externalising Government funds.”
The acquisition and subsequent return of the Malaysian
planes underlines everything that was wrong with Mr Chikore’s mis-captaining of
the airline as Zimbabwe simply did not have the resources, skills and other
necessary infrastructure to operate the B777.
Zimbabwe lacked the necessary capabilities, namely trained
engineers to maintain the 777, tooling, spares, hangar space and, of course,
the Air Operator’s Certificate required to operate commercially.
Additionally, the 777 needed to have 100 hours of flying
time a month to stay maintained, and also that it need to fly every seven days
if it wasn’t operating, to keep up with its maintenance. A number of problems
presented themselves.
Our sources said: “Zimbabwe did not have any engineers
trained to maintain the 777, which meant that we would need to import engineers
for this were the aircraft to be delivered to Zimbabwe.
“We did not have any trained pilots to fly the 777 in
Zimbabwe, which would mean that we need to import pilots rated on the 777 to
fly the aircraft every seven days.
“We did not have any hangar space, the only hangar that
would fit the 777 was occupied by Air Zimbabwe’s 767 which is currently
undergoing its C-check (a specialised maintenance system).
“We did not have any tools or spares for the 777 (and) we
did not have an AOC that would allow for the requirement of the 100 hours a
month of flight time required to keep the 777 in good condition.”
However, Mr Chikore reportedly disregarded wise counsel
from engineers and, in fact, had not made enough preparations to receive the
planes from Malaysia.
Eventually, a decision was made to return the aircraft
following consultations between the Ministry of Transport and its legal team,
CAAZ and Zimbabwe Airways.
“The minister conceded that he had been ill-advised
regarding the aircraft and agreed that we return Z-RGM. The aircraft was
returned on May 25,” said the source, adding that Mr Chikore was not consulted
as he had travelled abroad.
Repeated efforts to get a comment from Mr Chikore were
fruitless by last night.
Government is in the process of cleaning up the mess of Mr
Chikore’s controversial tenure and has since disbanded Zim Airways.
Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development Joel
Biggie Matiza last night confirmed that Government was regularising acquisition
of the planes.
“The Embrear is on its way, as we speak and will arrive in
the next two weeks,” he said.
“Government has also authorised payments of the outstanding
amounts,” he added.
Last month, Cabinet approved the regularisation of the
acquisition of aircraft bought from Malaysia and make outstanding payments for
the Embrear planes acquired in the US are brought to Zimbabwe. Herald
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