The Herald reports former Air Zimbabwe chief operating officer Simba Chikore diverted funds meant to pay Zimbabwean engineers maintaining aircraft in Malaysia.
Chikore allegedly took money meant to pay health insurance for workers, while in another case he withheld payments of allowances to staff. The Herald reports that documents in their possession show the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe released US$51 840 with more requested for December and January. A source who spoke to The Herald said:
Engineer Martin Gwafa, Simba Mironga and Lawrence Mashoko were the engineers that had been maintaining the aircraft in Malaysia from June 2017 to April 2018. They were employees of Air Zimbabwe but Air Zimbabwe stopped paying their salaries as of December 2017 citing absence from work for a period without reporting for duty. The crew were maintained by a monthly travel and subsistence allowance of US$288 per day from Zimbabwe Airways. Since they were no longer receiving a salary from Air Zimbabwe, the crew depended heavily on this monthly allocation
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