HARARE – Zimbabwe has acquired 32 helicopters from Russia’s sanctioned state arms company at what appears to be inflated prices.
Eighteen of the helicopters, reportedly delivered at a cost of US$10 million each, were officially handed over to President Emmerson Mnangagwa at RGM International Airport in Harare on Thursday, with 12 designated as air ambulances and six assigned to the Zimbabwe Republic Police.
The last batch of 14 are military helicopters, including at least three to be used for “VIP transport,” ZimLive understands.
Sergey Chemezov, the director general of Rostec State Corporation, Russia’s state-owned arms company, flew to Harare to hand over the helicopters to Mnangagwa.
The opaque acquisition made outside a public tender system will raise new questions about Zimbabwe’s procurement procedures, coming just days after the government published a decree banning the disclosure of information relating to government acquisitions of ambulances, medical equipment and construction equipment.
President Mnangagwa has reversed the controversial law, which government spokesman Ndavaningi Mangwana said was originated by the health ministry under Vice President Constantino Chiwenga.
According to the government, Zimbabwe is paying a total of US$320 million for the 32 helicopters, giving an average unit price of US$10 million.
The Ansat’s manufacturer, Russian Helicopters, does not display the price of its helicopters online but defence and military websites however put the unit cost at anything between US$2.5 million and US$6 million. Zimbabwe, based on that data, appears to have paid way more.
ZimLive has established that at least one of the Russian aircraft used to deliver the choppers to Harare was an Ilyushin II-76TD (registration RA-76502) owned by Aviacon Zitotrans. The commercial air freighter designed to carry outsized or heavy items landed in Harare on April 25 before leaving for Moscow a day later via Uganda and Saudi Arabia.
Chemezov, who is under European Union and United States sanctions over Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, flew to Zimbabwe early Thursday aboard a Red Wings Airlines Tupolev Tu-204-300 (registration RA-64039). He travelled from Moscow to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and then on to Harare, before making a leisure trip to Victoria Falls later in the evening.
This was Chemezov’s second trip to Zimbabwe in a year. He met Mnangagwa at an event to celebrate his birthday in September 2022 and announced a donation of an Ansat air ambulance to Zimbabwe.
Andrey Perevedentsev, the chief physician of the Russian National Air Ambulance Service, described the helicopter as a “flying intensive care unit.”
At the same event, Alexander Kozlov, Russia’s Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology revealed that Mnangagwa wanted more helicopters.
“The president of Zimbabwe has said that he wants to create air ambulance. This is a very important decision. And today the basis of the air ambulance, created in Africa, is the equipment produced in Russia. Our industry allows us to deliver this equipment in a timely manner,” he said.
The Ansat is built to a classic single-rotor design with a four blade main rotor and a two-blade tail rotor. It has a top speed of 275 km/h and can fly non-stop for 505 kilometers at a maximum height of 18,000 feet (5,500 meters).
