Former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe’s son-in-law Simba Chikore, whose
name has been at the centre of a raging debate over a Zimbabwe Airways deal,
has reportedly said that he "is only doing a service to his country and is not
on a self-enrichment exercise".
According to The Standard newspaper , Chikore, who is married to Mugabe's
daughter Bona, has been at the forefront of setting up Zimbabwe Airways, an
airline the government claims was being established to complement the
struggling Air Zimbabwe.
Early this month, Bona was at Harare's international airport, to see the
arrival of a newly-acquired passenger plane bearing her father's initials .
The Boeing 777, with the registration code Z-RGM, made a low fly past over
Harare’s main Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport before it touched
down from Malaysia.
Pictures from the runway showed Bona with her husband,
who was aboard the plane and dressed in a pilot's uniform. It was unclear if
Chikore, a trained airline pilot, had been at the controls.
Chikore was chief operating officer at the debt-ridden Air Zimbabwe at the
time a deal was reportedly sealed last year with Malaysia Airlines to purchase
pre-used planes. He no longer holds that post.
'They are not my planes'
Following the arrival of the Boeing 777, reports indicated that Transport Minister Jorum Gumbo and
Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa had been at pains trying to explain the
rationale behind the setting-up of the airline amid speculation it was a Mugabe
family venture.
But according to The Standard, Chikore maintained that Mugabe was not
involved in the setting-up of the airline and that he himself was only
providing technical expertise.
"When you talk about me, I am a
professional and I am not going to go around trying to defend myself, people
will know the truth and people are smart enough.
"If people are interested they can go to the registrar of companies to see
who owns the company, they’ll see the CR40, they’ll see the CR6, they will see
the stakeholder, and my name is not there.
"The company itself belongs to the government of Zimbabwe, the proof is
there and it’s public knowledge.
"I don't have to go loud and say they are not my planes. In fact, where
would I get that kind of money to buy the aircraft?," Chikore was quoted as
saying.
Meanwhile, the report also said that aviation experts continued to ask
questions about the government's deal to buy two planes that had been grounded
for some time in Malaysia.
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