Farai Mabeza, Senior Staff Writer 
THE Airports Company of Zimbabwe (ACZ) is waiting for the government to gazette a statutory instrument that will spell out the separation of assets and liabilities, as the firm completes its unbundling from the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (Caaz).
The process, which started in 2018 seeks to avoid a conflict of interest and comply with International Civil Aviation Organisation regulations.
Under the previous structure, Caaz was both player and referee as it had regulatory oversight, while it also operated airports.
Caaz will maintain its name and identity and ACZ’s key mandate will be to acquire, establish and manage airports in Zimbabwe.
“There is supposed to be the gazetting of a statutory instrument that allocates and separates assets and liabilities so that the two entities can fully function as separate bodies,” ACZ acting chief executive, Tawanda Gusha, told The Financial Gazette this week.
“We have done the enabling works of getting all the asset valuations done and we submitted that to the Transport ministry, which also submitted them to Treasury for verification of the assets and liabilities. Towards the end of February, the Transport permanent secretary wrote to the Finance permanent secretary (on the issues), so any time from now we are expecting a response, either in the form of a letter or approval of the statutory instrument”.
The latest publicly available financial statements dated December 2017, show that Caaz is technically insolvent, with officials raising a red flag over its going-concern status, as the regulator continues to pile on fresh debt despite failing to service its current obligations.
That year, Caaz reported long-term borrowings of US$416,2 million against a non-current asset base of US$444,5 million, while current liabilities of US$279,8 million outweighed current assets of US$38,1 million.
For the full year, Caaz reported a deficit of US$29,9 million compared to US$5,7 million in the previous year.
The deficit was despite a two percent growth in total revenue from US$38,5 million in 2016 to US$39,2 million, as finance costs and an exchange loss of US$15 million stemming from the foreign legacy loans ate into the top line.
A huge chunk of the loans are denominated in euros and pound sterling.
In 2018, Caaz secured an additional US$153 million debt from the China Exim Bank to finance an upgrade of the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport.
“… we have also started the process of opening our own bank accounts to pave way for our financial reporting because come the end of the year, we are supposed to present our own financial reports as a separate entity. We expect to be audited by the Auditor General as a separate entity. So, for all those things to happen we need that statutory instrument to be able to then give us those assets and liabilities that are specific to the company,” Gusha added.
Meanwhile, expansion works at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport are about 46 percent complete, according to Gusha.
The project will add four more aerobridges and see the construction of new fire stations.
The international terminal building is also being rehabilitated and expanded to accommodate up to six million passengers annually, while the domestic terminal building will be refurbished.
The ACZ board is chaired by Devnada Popatlal who is deputised by George Manyaya, while the other members are Tinotenda Ndewende, Rumbidzai Dihwa, Tendai Mabvure and Snikiwe Gwatidzo.
