An Air Zimbabwe Boeing 767 long haul was parked for three days at Windhoek’s Hosea Kutako International Airport waiting for President Robert Mugabe who was attending the 30th SADC heads of States and government meeting that ended Tuesday.
Mugabe flew into Namibia at the weekend from China where he attended the Zimbabwe Day at the Shanghai Fair and later took time to go on a shopping spree in Hong Kong. The Air Zimbabwe plane which normally flies to London was expected to fly back home Tuesday evening at the end of the summit which was celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.
The plane was parked on a section of the airport allocated to presidential jets of regional leaders. Next to the Zimbabwean big bird was South African President, Jacob Zuma’s plane which is operated by the South African Airforce and a jet belonging to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) president Joseph Kabila.
President Mugabe has been accused in the past of commandeering scheduled Air Zimbabwe planes for private and state visits, in and out of the country. However Air Zimbabwe Officials have always maintained that whenever the president travels he charters the aircraft.