Karate Coach Stuck

27 May 2011

ZAMBIA karate team coach Munyarazi Mangaba was yesterday among several passengers whose flight to Johannesburg, South Africa was rescheduled to today because of a technical fault on the Zambezi Airlines plane.

Mangaba said in an interviews from the airport that he was scheduled to meet with three karatekas who are representing Zambia in the Zone Six Karate championships in Mozambique and had travelled by road on Wednesday to Johannesburg.

He said he was worried that the trio; Boniface Lufelile, Farai Mangaba and Kelvin Nambotwe would be stranded in Johannesburg because they only had enough money for food for one day.

“My worry is the boys. I don’t know what they will eat and where they will sleep because they left yesterday (Wednesday) by road and I was supposed to meet with them in Johannesburg so that we leave as a team to Maputo, but with the development, I don’t know what will happen to them,” Mangaba said.

He said he was scheduled to have been in Johannesburg by 10:55 hours, but he together with other passengers were delayed because of a technical problem with the Zambezi aircraft which had developed a fault.

The coach said the airline staff assured the passengers that they would be updated on the way forward until after 16:00 hours when they were notified that the flight had been rescheduled to today.

Asked if he told the Sports Council of Zambia (SCZ) about the development, Mangaba said the SCZ was not aware about the situation.

And efforts to get SCZ general secretary Rodgers Chipili proved futile.

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