{"id":45028,"date":"2021-08-15T16:46:14","date_gmt":"2021-08-15T14:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/?p=45028"},"modified":"2021-08-15T15:53:29","modified_gmt":"2021-08-15T13:53:29","slug":"mnangagwa-aborts-mutare-mission-as-thick-fog-raises-copter-crash-fears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/mnangagwa-aborts-mutare-mission-as-thick-fog-raises-copter-crash-fears","title":{"rendered":"Mnangagwa Aborts Mutare Mission As Thick Fog Raises \u2018Copter Crash Fears"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Zimbabwe<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>By Kenneth Matimaire<\/b> –<\/p>\n

PRESIDENT Emerson Mnangagwa\u2019s helicopter was forced to return to Harare after failing to land in Mutare due to thick fog which led to security personnel raise fears it could crash in the mountainous boarder city Saturday, NewZimbabwe.com can reveal.<\/p>\n

Mnangagwa was scheduled to officially open an oxygen production plant.<\/p>\n

The oxygen plant was established by Verify Engineering (VE) located at Feruka Oil Refinery in the eastern border town of Mutare with the aid of Indian engineers and the Harare Institute of Technology (HIT).<\/p>\n

VE \u2013 an amalgamation of the country\u2019s security services \u2013 is government\u2019s research and development unit under the ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology.<\/p>\n

Its oxygen plant is expected to play a major role to fight Covid-19 pandemic amid high demand.<\/p>\n

During Covid-19 healthcare, oxygen, which is pumped into the body by a ventilator, has become an integral component to resuscitate severe Covid-19 patients.<\/p>\n

Security sources who were privy to Mnangagwa\u2019s travelling arrangements said he could not safely land due to bad weather experienced on Saturday and had to cancel the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cInitially the official opening was set for Friday (August 13) before it was rescheduled for Saturday under unclear circumstances. But what is clear is that the event could not take place again today (Saturday) because of unfavourable weather experienced,\u201d said the security source.<\/p>\n

Mnangagwa is reportedly now using the Airforce of Zimbabwe (AFZ) latest acquisition of an Airbus H215 helicopter that replaced the aged Cougar helicopter that was used by the president to fly around the country.<\/p>\n

Mutare experienced cloudy and completely obscured sky with light showers, which made it difficult for safe air travel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe event has been postponed to Thursday (August 19),\u201d said the security source.<\/p>\n

The development comes at a time Zimbabwe currently imports the bulk of its oxygen from South Africa where demand is also growing owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

The plant is essential as it will ensure that there are adequate supplies of, inter alia, medical oxygen, which is used for first aid resuscitation in emergences, during anaesthesia, life support and oxygen therapy.<\/p>\n

Verify, which was formed in 2005, installed an Air Separation Unit (ASU) with capacity to produces 50 tonnes of oxygen per day but managed 30 tonnes per day in 2017.<\/p>\n

Apart from oxygen, the ASU also produced 16,5 tonnes of liquid fuel, 2,5 tonnes of liquid nitrogen per day including an acetylene plant that produced 2,5 tonnes of gas per day during the same year.<\/p>\n

Verify chief executive officer Pedzi Tapfumaneyi then, projected that the firm had potential to meet 65 percent of the country\u2019s demand of products under production by 2019 if funding was readily available.<\/p>\n

However, Tapfumaneyi lamented that the wholly State-owned project was underfunded by government.<\/p>\n

\u201cA 50 tonnes per day ASU plant was bought from India. Works for this site (ASU) was abandoned in 2008 when it was directly funded by RBZ (Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe) at that time. The 65,000 litres per day plant could have been too big for our principals which was US$42 million and we downsized it to 5,000 litres per day plant, which now costs US$10 million,\u201d he said the, adding that the commercial fuel plant is earmarked to produce 8 million litres of fuel per day.<\/p>\n

It could not be established at what capacity of production Verify had managed to reach at present.<\/p>\n

Mnangagwa\u2019s earmarked visit comes after former vice president Phelekezela Mphoko toured the company in 2015.<\/p>\n

Former Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education Professor Jonathan Moyo and RBZ governor John Mangudya among other high profile government officials also toured the plant in April 2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. By Kenneth Matimaire – PRESIDENT Emerson Mnangagwa\u2019s helicopter was forced to return to Harare after failing to land in Mutare due to thick fog which led to security personnel raise fears it could crash in the mountainous boarder city Saturday, NewZimbabwe.com can reveal. Mnangagwa was scheduled to officially open an oxygen production […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":45027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,35,12,15],"tags":[1493,2189,19],"class_list":{"0":"post-45028","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-homepage-english","9":"category-policy","10":"category-twitter","11":"tag-africa-press","12":"tag-africa-press-zimbabwe-2","13":"tag-zimbabwe"},"yoast_head":"\nMnangagwa Aborts Mutare Mission As Thick Fog Raises \u2018Copter Crash Fears - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Kenneth Matimaire - PRESIDENT Emerson Mnangagwa\u2019s helicopter was forced to return to Harare after failing to ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/mnangagwa-aborts-mutare-mission-as-thick-fog-raises-copter-crash-fears\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mnangagwa Aborts Mutare Mission As Thick Fog Raises \u2018Copter Crash Fears\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Kenneth Matimaire - 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