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become a joke which has long ceased to be funny. A more decisive and results-oriented path should be assumed. We have become tired of the sad story coming out of the airline year in and year out.

I always recall one incident when I was flying to Zambia with my kids to visit my sister in November 2008. The flight was rescheduled not once or twice but three times as pilots refused to take off until their outstanding salaries were paid.

I remember vividly the then chief executive, Dr Peter Chikumba, trying frantically to cool the tempers of irate passengers who were desperate to leave. Being a bit on the short side, he had to climb on one of the benches in the departure lounge to explain the situation to passengers.

That sight alone and the sweat that formed on his forehead told a story that things were not well at Air Zimbabwe. I remember one parent bolting out in the middle of the address as she was left with no choice but to try and drive her son to Zambia who had examinations at 8am in the morning. It would only need a miracle for her to have made it on time but it was my prayer then that God would work out something for her.

Many told of meetings they had missed, interviews that had been rescheduled and funerals that needed to be attended in the three days that we were stranded.

Those of us who remained there had no choice but to wait for the next morning’s flight. We had to then go home or go to one city hotel for the night particularly for those that stayed out of Harare.
I tried to be “naughty” and insisted on being booked into a hotel despite the fact that my house was a few minutes’ drive from the airport. I felt then that Airzim had to pay somehow for the inconvenience. It was the second boob in as many weeks.

A few weeks earlier we had to endure hours on end at the OR Tambo Airport in Johannesburg as Airzim failed to provide a plane to take us to Harare. We eventually left for home after midnight instead of the scheduled 1920hrs. But, as if to rub salt into the wound, the hotel service was no better. Dirty towels, poor food, etc.

We ordered a meal with my boys at about 8pm and we got the dry, hard-crusted burgers at 1.10am the next day. One would have been excused for thinking that Air Zimbabwe and that hotel had connived to make life so tough for us for some strange reason. We had to endure this ordeal and we eventually left for Lusaka. The 50-minute journey actually took three days.

This sad story is only but one of the many bad experiences that passengers and would-be passengers have had to endure atn the hands of Air Zimbabwe for almost a decade now.
But at that point I thought it would not get any worse. I had really underestimated the airline’s ability to self-destruct. It actually ground to a halt and has been in the hangar for several months until last November.

It succumbed to huge debts, poor corporate governance systems, worker dissent, poor funding, wild pigs and a whole host of challenges that left it incapacitated to lift even one wing. Such airlines as South African Airways, Kenya Airways, Ethiopian Airways were quick to grab its market share which they are enjoying to date.

Is the story about to change? We can only hope so.
Significant progress has been made over the past two months to get Air Zimbabwe firmly on a recovery path. It still boggles the mind though why it has taken years for someone to realise the urgency with which the Air Zimbabwe crisis needs to be treated.

A fortnight ago I was chatting to a former manager at the airline who said the challenges at Air Zimbabwe were more deep-rooted, requiring an honest and earnest audit from which solutions can be sought.

He indicated that some of the workers that had been retrenched included key engineers that the airline had invested large sums of money in their training and were critical to Airzim. However, most of them were easily grabbed by other regional and international airlines where they are performing wonders and sustaining operations.

He says to date Airzim is paying heavily for getting rid of those skills, an ailment that will be a difficult one to cure. I could decipher it was not a case of sour grapes at all but that his heart is really with the airline and he would be more than happy to see it function viably. Authorities have largely ignored submissions by former employees instead of harnessing this information for the sake of the airline’s future.

My good source said a lot issues would need to be resolved first at the airline before a sustainable turnaround becomes feasible.

Phew! This is the background against which a new board is coming into office at Air Zimbabwe.
Obviously, in such circumstances the board fees will be incongruent to the work at hand.

There is certainly more value in resuscitating the airline that in the dollars they may earn.
The new board will certainly need to have real commitment and a desire to achieve results.

Restoring Airzim to viability was never meant to be a stroll in the rose garden. It will require women and men of repute. It will require a good mix of technocrats and not just political appointees meant to serve the interests of this office bearer or that one.

The board has a responsibility to transform Airzim and should be accountable to all stakeholders. This is national pride at stake, ladies and gentlemen.

Transport Communications and Infrastructural Development Secretary Mr Munesu Munodawafa confirmed this week that the new board would come into office next Friday (February 22 2013) in line with recommendations from Ernst & Young.

Let’s give it to them! The fact that a private firm was contracted to advice on the turnaround shows some seriousness on the part of Government to get the airline back in real business.

“We have been working with a consultant Ernst & Young to come up with a business plan to revive Air Zimbabwe. A blueprint of what the new board needs to do is now in place,” said Mr Munodawafa. This is one man whose credentials I have never doubted.

Right from my days as a green journalist, he is one person I have admired in Government who seems equal to the task. His addresses and contributions during debates have left me convinced that Government has a rich human resource base which it can choose to exploit for the good of the nation.

We hope that the blueprint contains the right prescription for Airzim and that the powers that be will adhere to the doctor’s prescription. The bottom line is that we want the national carrier back in the skies.

It would be embarrassing if the airline failed to acquit itself when the UNWTO General Assembly meeting begins in August. Of course, it’s less than six months to go before the meeting but something can be done within this time to salvage the airline.

The new board would thus need total support from Government and other stakeholders. We will all need to rally behind it.

However, we must warn them from the outset that the media, the Fourth Estate, will be watching.
Certainly this writer will continue to track the story that began years and years ago Above all, Air Zimbabwe, as with the rest of the nation, needs the presence of God to surmount its challenges and operate viably.

In God I Trust!

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