Parliament’s Standing Committee on Appropriations has said that Zimbabwe owes South African Airways (SAA) about R1 billion in revenue from ticket sales on flights to and from the country, and that diplomatic relations should not come at the expense of recovering it. The committee’s chairperson, Dr Mmusi Maimane, set out the position in a statement issued on 7 October 2026 after the committee’s consultations with the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO).
Maimane said SAA is not operating profitably and is incapable of meeting some of its obligations, and that the revenue owed to it by a neighbouring country is much needed.
The committee concluded from its consultations that DIRCO lacks the capability to recover funds owed to South Africa by other governments, and it described the SAA debt as long-standing and ongoing. It has urged DIRCO to put mechanisms in place for dealing with countries that refuse to repay what they owe, and Maimane said the duration of the matter led the committee to engage DIRCO to establish where the problem lay and whether diplomatic channels could resolve it. He said DIRCO is assisting the Department of Transport in recovering the unpaid SAA revenue.
The committee said it will continue to pursue the SAA matter and will engage further with DIRCO and the National Treasury on debts owed to South Africa in due course.
