Grounding of planes not political – Zim government

Zimbabwe’s government has said the grounding of planes Air Zimbabwe and South African Airways planes was a compliance not political issue.

Joram Gumbo, Zimbabwe’s Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development said that it was unfortunate that the ‘foreign operators permit’ issue had not been looked at earlier in what he described as ‘oversight’.

Gumbo also said he and his counterpart South Africa’s Minister of Transport, Mr Joe Maswanganyi were in contact over the issue but could not interfere as it was an operational issue.

The South African Civil Aviation Authority grounded Air Zimbabwe planes on Friday night and the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe took action grounding SAA planes.