Air Zimbabwe acting CEO suspended

HARARE – Air Zimbabwe’s acting chief executive officer Innocent Mavhunga has landed on a hard patch after being suspended from employment according to a report by the independent Radio VOP.

Information stitched together by Radio VOP shows that Mavhunga was shown the exit door last Friday by the Ozias Bvute-led Air Zimbabwe Holdings’ board of directors after being fingered in a scam from a report of a forensic audit done on the airline in 2011.

“They (the board) are blaming him on all those things (audit findings). They are saying he was the one in charge when the scam was unearthed,” insiders at Air Zimbabwe told Radio VOP on Monday.

The suspension of Mavhunga comes barely five months after the struggling airline’s board of directors dismissed four senior executives in April in connection with anomalies noted from the forensic audit.

The senior executives include Moses Mapanda, the general manager for Air Zimbabwe Passenger, Nicholas Munjere, the general manager for finance, Cephas Tarenyika, the airline’s director for technical operations and Bothwell Gavhumende, the general manager for purchasing and his whole departmental staff.

The sources said the board appointed Edmund Makona, Air Zimbabwe’s head of Corporate Quality, Safety and Security to temporarily fill in Mavhunga’s post. Air Zimbabwe spokesperson Shingai Taruvinga professed ignorance about the forced departure of Mavhunga.

“I am not aware of that,” said Taruvinga. 

Mavhunga was appointed acting CEO in January 2011 following the resignation of Peter Chikumba. Radio VOP