Harare International Airport would be renamed after
President Robert Mugabe with effect from November 2017, a cabinet minister said
on Friday.
Transport and Infrastructure Development Minister, Joram
Gumbo, told state media that the airport would be renamed Robert Gabriel Mugabe
International Airport after the International Civil Aviation Organisation
approved the proposed change of names.
“The International Civil Aviation Organisation has approved
the change of name. The process has started and by end of November we will have
renamed it,’’ Gumbo said.
This would be the second time in post-independent Zimbabwe
that an airport has been named after a person.
The first one being Bulawayo Airport which was upgraded from
domestic to international and renamed Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo International
Airport after the late Vice President Joshua Nkomo.
The only other public airport bearing the name of a person
is the Mount Hampden Airstrip.
The then Rhodesian government changed its name to Charles
Prince Airport in 1978 after Charles Hilton Prince who had worked there between
1958 and 1973 as Air Traffic Controller and airport manager.
Many roads in major urban centres have been named after
Mugabe, with even an orphanage at a mission school in Manicaland bearing his
name.
Gumbo said the ruling Zanu-PF party had on numerous
occasions requested the renaming of the airport after him.
“We think it is a small recognition by the people of
Zimbabwe to name the Harare International Airport as the Robert Gabriel Mugabe
International Airport.
“It is something small to recognise his contribution.
“He is a peacemaker. He is an icon for Africa, Gumbo said.
(Xinhua/NAN)
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