DA pans Zim pilot instructors

Cape Town - The Democratic Alliance party has urged the government not to use Zimbabwean flying instructors to train South African Air Force (SAAF) pilots.

The DA's Rafeek Shah said: "The proposal is severely flawed on a number of accounts."

He was questioning if Zimbabwean Air Force instructors had sufficient knowledge of, or experience with, SAAF aircraft.

He said: "For example, they have no experience of our most-basic trainer aircraft, the Astra Pilatus."

His concerns came after a military agreement signed last Thursday between Zimbabwe and South Africa under which Zimbabwean flying instructors would train SAAF pilots.

Controversial arms acquisition process

Shah said: "Given that there are not even enough trained South African personnel to train pilots on the forthcoming Hawks, it is highly unlikely the Zimbabweans will be able to offer training assistance on these aircraft, let alone the even-more-sophisticated Gripen fighter jets."

Paying for Zimbabweans' training

He said these fighters, part of the country's controversial arms acquisition process, had highly sophisticated avionics, "much more advanced than anything to which the Zimbabweans would have been exposed".

He said there was every chance that, as a result of this agreement, the SA taxpayer would have to pay for Zimbabwean pilots to be trained on the new jets in order to train SA cadets.

He said: "It is morally bankrupt for SA to recruit instructors from the Zimbabwean military, given their appalling human rights record.

"It is truly bizarre that instead of sending a clear message that human rights abuses will not be tolerated, we have instead chosen to enter even closer co-operation."

News24