Tendai Ruben Mbofana
This question forced itself to the forefront of my mind as debate raged over the recent wet-leasing of an aged Airbus A330 by Air Zimbabwe to service the long-suspended Harare to London route.
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Predictable battle lines were immediately drawn.
On one side stood citizens who saw the move for what it truly is: not a sign of progress, but a glaring symbol of a once-proud national airline brought to its knees by decades of systemic plunder, political interference, and gross mismanagement.
On the other side were those quick to dismiss critics as armchair aviation experts, chronic haters, and negative cynics who criticize merely for the sake of criticism.
The defense, predictably wrapped in tired platitudes, urged us to celebrate this as a commendable “first step” toward reviving our ailing national carrier—reminding us, as always, that “Rome was not built in a day.”
That convenient line of reasoning collapses under the slightest historical scrutiny.
Air Zimbabwe is not a fledgling startup born a year or two ago.
It has been in continuous operation since September 1, 1967, when it was established as Air Rhodesia Corporation, with organizational roots tracing all the way back to Central African Airways in 1946.
How is it that after eight decades of aviation heritage, our country cannot field a single operational, state-owned long-haul plane?
Consider Africa’s aviation giant, Ethiopian Airlines.
Founded at virtually the same time in December 1945, Ethiopian Airlines operates a soaring fleet of over 170 modern aircraft—spanning state-of-the-art Airbus, Boeing, and Bombardier models.
While Ethiopian Airlines routinely expands its empire, Air Zimbabwe celebrates renting an outdated aircraft.
Should this disparity not outrage every single Zimbabwean?
At independence in 1980, Air Zimbabwe inherited an enviable fleet of between 18 and 22 aircraft from Air Rhodesia, including Vickers Viscounts and Boeing 707 and 720 models.
Fast-forward to today, and we are expected to ululate because the state has entered a costly ACMI wet-lease agreement for a bare-bones, low-spec Airbus A330.
An aircraft stripped of basic modern inflight entertainment screens, operated by foreign crews under a foreign registry to bypass safety bans.
Why are we expected to cheer for rented crumbs when we ought to be celebrating brand-new additions to our own sovereign fleet?
Are we not supposed to be celebrating a brand new addition to an already big fleet—as recently Ethiopian Airlines which in June 2026, took delivery of its first two De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter Classic 300-G aircraft?
The answer lies in a deep-seated culture of corruption and institutional decay.
We must never forget the long trail of scandals that bled our national carrier dry.
We saw commercial long-haul aircraft routinely yanked off scheduled flights at a moment’s notice for presidential charters, stranding paying passengers worldwide and destroying commercial credibility.
We watched in shame as an Air Zimbabwe Boeing 767 was impounded at London Gatwick over a $1.2 million debt to spare-parts suppliers, triggering the eventual collapse of the route.
Unpaid bills, regulatory neglect, and severe safety failures ultimately landed the airline on the European Union Air Safety List, banning our own aircraft from European skies.
Then came the staggering financial deceptions, most notoriously the Zimbabwe Airways debacle.
Tens of millions of dollars in public funds were reportedly funneled through the central bank under the guise of a offshore private entity to buy used Boeing 777s from Malaysia.
Those wide-body jets never served the public; without proper licensing or maintenance structures, they sat rotting on the Harare tarmac, suffering severe engine degradation while public funds vanished into thin air.
Parliamentary audits later revealed that even regional aircraft—including Chinese-made MA60 turboprops—simply disappeared from the airline’s asset registers.
So why are we labeled “unappreciative haters” for demanding answers before jumping for joy?
Where did those vanished planes go?
What happened to those responsible for the Zimbabwe Airways heist?
Are we expected to erase this dark history, nod along, and blindly hope this wet-lease deal is not just another opaque mechanism to siphon public funds into private pockets through inflated charter rates?
To swallow this without question proves that we have become far too easy to exploit.
We behave like a laborer who works hard all day under the explicit promise of a $100 wage, only for the employer to hand him two bags of mealie-meal worth $12.
Instead of demanding his full wages and his rights, the worker dances and praises his master for being generous enough to feed him.
That is the trap we have fallen into as a nation.
We have been conditioned to accept mediocrity as prosperity and retrogression as turnaround strategies.
We applaud the very architects of our impoverishment when they hand us substandard workarounds.
Demanding accountability, justice, and dignity is not being unappreciative, nor does it make us haters.
It simply means we refuse to be treated as fools in our own country.
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