AIR Zimbabwe plans to rationalise its bloated management and re-organise in order to survive in the face of high administrative costs.
BY PAIDAMOYO MUZULU
The national airline is already negotiating an exit package with former acting chief executive Edmund Makona, who left in a huff after the surprise appointment of Ripton Muzenda as substantive boss last week.
The airline, struggling under a $300 million debt, has four directors, 21 senior managers and over 600 employees against the five operational aeroplanes.
The international ratio is one plane to 85 workers.
“The bottom line is Air Zimbabwe is top heavy and it has to be re-organised as we cannot afford to pay all those senior staff,” Air Zim chairperson Chipo Dyanda said.
The company has had several turnaround strategy papers prepared, but it has remained in the red despite continuous support from the broke government.
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An insider said the changes proposed were always brought to the table with each changing board for the past five or so years, but no one wanted to implement the recommendations.
“This is a simple ploy for every new board to be seen as working, but they are always reluctant to implement reports such as the Ernst and Young report,” the source said.
However, Dyanda refuted the allegations, saying they were considering all the reports before they could implement their turnaround strategy.
“I am aware of the Ernst and Young 2012 report and I’m looking into it. In actual fact, the board is reading all the reports that were made in the past and considering their recommendations,” she said.
Dyanda confirmed that the board had started negotiating with Makona.
“I cannot discuss internal processes that are in motion. It’s bad to talk about ongoing negotiations,” she said. Makona was not ready to discuss the issue when contacted for comment yesterday.
However, last week he confirmed that he was not at work.
