Presidential spokesperson George Charamba told The Standard in an exclusive interview yesterday that the Airbus A318-100, which flew seven hours and 16 minutes from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday to be in position in Harare before Mnangagwa’s flight to Bulawayo on Thursday, remained in the country ahead of another foreign trip by Mnangagwa to South Africa tomorrow.

“Then coming to the Bulawayo issue, the aircraft you are talking about came in on Thursday and has been here preparing to take the president to South Africa for the Sadc Solidarity Conference on Western Sahara, scheduled for 25-26 March 2019 in Pretoria,” Charamba said.

“We booked the aircraft to be here until it brings back the president from the summit on Tuesday. If you were going to check, the aircraft is currently at the tarmac of the domestic flights and it is cheaper to hire the aircraft for days than to hire it on the day when the president wants to fly out.”

Since he took over through a military-assisted process in 2017, Mnangagwa has projected himself as a simple leader who wants to cut costs, but instead he has often used hired private jets for most of his foreign trips.

Last week he had to use a hired jet for a local trip to Bulawayo where he met civil society members, raising questions on his sincerity to tackle public expenditure.

Charamba said his boss was committed to costcutting and his officials were feeling the pinch.

“Let me pre-empt you; I know you would want to ask why not use scheduled flights for the president. Here is the tricky issue. One, it is very risky to do that for both the president and the airline. In this case, we are talking of a national airline which has one aircraft to service all its routes. If the president was to use a scheduled flight, it means that all the luggage in that flight will be opened and subjected to search by our security systems,” he said.

-The Standard