Mugabe commandeers Air Zimbabwe jet

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By Staff Reporter

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe last Saturday commandeered an Air Zimbabwe plane from London to pick him up from Cairo, Egypt, New Zimbabwe.com can reveal.

Air Zimbabwe officials turned-up at Gatwick Airport as the plane was about to take off for Harare and ordered passengers who had booked the business class to get off the plane, leading to a three-hour delay.

A passenger who was on the plane told New Zimbabwe.com: "Air Zimbabwe officials flatly refused to say why the passengers were being ordered off the plane. At that stage, no-one knew the plane had in fact been re-routed to go via Cairo to pick-up Mugabe, his wife and their shopping."

Mugabe was returning from a Group of 77-China summit in Doha, Qatar.

This is not the first time Air Zimbabwe has been forced to leave passengers behind at considerable expense to the ailing airliner which is a shadow of its former self.

Last year, the former editor of the weekly Zimbabwe Independent newspaper and his chief report Dumisani Muleya were arrested for correctly reporting that the 81-year-old leader had commandeered a jet from the state-owned Air Zimbabwe for use during a holiday in Asia.

In December 2003, Mugabe and his wife had used another Air Zimbabwe jet to travel to an international conference in Geneva and to visit Egypt, which forced Air Zimbabwe to charter another jet for more than US$1 million.
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