FLY AFRICA ZIMBABWE FACED WITH MEGA TAX CLAIMS AMID SUGGESTIONS TO CHARGE CEO
(Posted 17th December 2015)
When news were broken here on the 28th of October that flights by FlyAfrica Zimbabwe had been suspended, did the airline react with initially a denial and then accusations before moving to the stage of threatening legal action. In fact, in an ironic reversal of roles is this what the airline now faces from the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority. ZIMRA has now claimed over 2.5 million US Dollars from them, payable within a week or else other appropriate action would be initiated against the airline and very likely also the big bosses, even though they may reside outside the jurisdiction of Zimbabwean courts.
Suggestions from Harare now also speak of a growing sentiments to have the airline’s CEO Adrian Hamilton-Manns investigated over allegation that some 15.000 wannabe passengers had bought tickets in good faith and are claiming refunds, with clear reference to questions of what Hamilton-Manns knew and when he knew it. These questions of course relate to the dates the bookings were made for flights the airline should have reasonably known they cannot operate in the absence of holding an AOC. The moment the AOC was suspended should the airline equally have suspended sales of tickets but that was clearly not the case. Hamilton-Manns refused to answer a question posed here two weeks ago if he was running a Ponzi Scheme as the top executives of the airline withdrew into their wagenburg and went silent.
In fact are the Zimbabwean shareholders, with whom Hamilton-Manns fell out, triggering the crisis, now considering action of their own following the airline’s use of a personal phone number on their website for their erstwhile partner. It has been mentioned to this correspondent by a reliable source from Harare that this was clearly intended to disturb Mr. Karase’s peace and inflict harassment and psycho terror on him as hundreds of agitated passengers demanded refunds from him while it was actually FlyAfrica which had taken their money.
While the airline, and Hamilton-Manns, continue to peddle utterances that refunds would be processed and money paid within 30 to 40 working days, has this period now all but ended and thousands are allegedly still waiting for refunds. The airline, not answering any questions from this correspondent, has however failed to show any evidence until now that they in fact have the funds to pay back passengers, a situation replicated in Namibia where FlyAfrica too is grounded.
‘The behaviour of this airline and its CEO is a complete disgrace. They are a black spot on the reputation of airlines and more so LCC’s. They bring the entire industry into disrepute. They should own up and close shop and then avail themselves for a full enquiry and if found appropriate by the authorities face legal action. With this sort of behaviour will Adrian [Hamilton-Manns,
the Group CEO of FlyAfrica] becomes a pariah in the industry and is literally unemployable in the future. He knows what he should do, he also knows what he is responsible for and he should face the music’ wrote an airline source from South Africa when asked to comment, but on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile are irate passengers who feel duped into buying tickets from FlyAfrica now reportedly seeking legal advice to start suing the airline for their money after waiting for weeks for refunds and only getting empty promises.
A quick look at the airline’s websites also reveals that mysteriously have working phone numbers disappeared giving those seeking refunds only an email address to write to, an apparent dead end however as the lack of large scale refunds shows.
Unable however to block all from their Facebook page – they blocked this correspondent in an attempt to silence searching questions – have angry passengers minced no words any longer when blasting the airline:
ouw Serfontein WARNING….. Do not fly with Fly Africa they cancel their flights without any prior notice and then they do not refund you for the canceled flight. Used them in November from Lanseria to Windhoek and back, the flight from Windhoek to Lanseria was canceled an hour before boarding .. after I have send them numerous emails and tried to contact them they have not answer me back or refunded me… WARNING
flyafrica.com Zimbabwe Louw Serfontein
Apologies, we are experiencing high traffic at the moment. We are trying our best to accommodate our customers.
Louw Serfontein My booking nr TDYQX7
Johanna Mbeeli Ekandjo How long does ur refund take @flyafrica.com
Louw Serfontein Im waiting a month and a half now
James Chisango I am facing the same issue with these guys. I paid them and they cancelled the flight. I had booked connecting flights with other airlines and imagine the loss. They have not up to today paid back my refund. The most irritating thing is they do not reply emails and they have totally cut off their phone lines. They are FRAUDS!!!!!!! Wish there was something I could do to expose them on a large scale. BOOKING NUMBER vpylou
The big question now of course is when will those responsible finally call it a day and formally announce the closure of the airline instead of peddling utterances of misguided hope that they will actually resume operations. It is obvious now that with such massive claims by the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority the Zimbabwe Civil Aviation is not likely to re-authorize an Air Operator Certificate as financial soundness is one of the key criteria for such a license to be granted.
Dark days ahead no doubt for FlyAfrica and also of course for scores of passengers who trusted them, instead of reading this publication for situational updates and paid for tickets for flights which by all accounts were never able to take off.
