By Andrew Aloia BBC Sport Last updated on 11 October 2021 11 October 2021 . From the section Football Watson was a trailblazer who helped transform how football was played There are two murals of black footballers facing one another across an alleyway in Glasgow. One helped shape football as we know it, the other is Pele. Andrew Watson captained Scotland to a 6-1 win over England on his debut in 1881. He was a pioneer, the world's first black international, but for more than a century the significance of his achievements went unrecognised. Research conducted over the past three decades has left us with some biographical details: a man descended of slaves and of those who enslaved them, born in Guyana, raised to become an English gentleman and famed as one of Scottish football's first icons. And yet today, 100 years on from his death aged 64, Watson remains something of an enigma, the picture built around him a fractured one. His grainy, faded, sepia image evokes many differen...
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Mnangagwa splashes on US$18 million helicopter – and gets Antonov to deliver it
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Zimbabwe leader set to use new chopper for 2023 re-election campaign
New chopper ... President Emmerson Mnangagwa has taken delivery of a new H215 helicopter like this one
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HARARE – President Emmerson Mnangagwa has taken delivery of an US$18 million helicopter in the middle of a major economic slump and growing poverty, ZimLive can reveal.
A Russian Antonov AN-124 – the world’s third heaviest gross weight production cargo aircraft – flew into Harare on Thursday, April 15, and disgorged a brand-new chopper which the Zanu PF leader plans to use during his re-election campaign ahead of elections in 2023.
The Volga Dnepr-operated Antonov flew out of Rzeszów–Jasionka Airport in south-eastern Poland, 10km from the city of Rzeszów, and landed at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport just before 8PM.
Onboard the cargo transport behemoth – which was still on the tarmac at Zimbabwe’s main airport on Sunday morning – was an Airbus Helicopters H215, an upgraded version of the ageing Eurocopter AS-532UL Cougar which Zimbabwe’s military has been using for VIP transportation.
A military source said: “There have been concerns about the safety of the Cougar currently in service. President Mnangagwa will be doing a lot of domestic travel to remote parts of the country leading up to 2023 and that’s why this purchase was approved.”
It is unclear how the purchase was financed, or why the Antonov picked up its cargo from Poland which does not have a production facility for the H215 helicopter – although Romania, nearby, has a factory in the city of Brasov where the H215 is assembled.
Whilst the H215 is a civilian helicopter, its custodians will be Zimbabwe’s Air Force. European Union sanctions prohibit the export of military equipment to Zimbabwe – opening the deal to possible scrutiny by sanctions monitors.
The acquisition also comes just weeks after suspected arms dealer Alexander Zingman, Zimbabwe’s honorary consul to Belarus, travelled to Harare – but not before he was detained for nearly two weeks by authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo who were probing his activities. Curiously, Zimbabwe was one of the countries pressing for his release.
Zingman previously brokered a deal between Zambia’s government and the Russian state-owned arms company, Rosoboronexport, which saw the southern African country take delivery of five Sukhoi jets from Russia in 2017.
Safety concerns … Mnangagwa’s new chopper is an upgrade on the Eurocopter AS-532UL Cougar (top of picture) which he has been using to reach remote areasReady for dinner … The Antonov AN-124 is one of the world’s biggest cargo aircraft
Zimbabwe is going through a major economic crisis, made worse by the coronavirus pandemic. Joblessness, poor salaries and failing social services have built up resentment against President Mnangagwa, who seized power in a military coup in 2017 while promising an economic boom.
Zimbabwe is set to hold watershed elections in 2023 but observers say the electoral field is already skewed against Mnangagwa’s rival Nelson Chamisa, the leader of the MDC Alliance. Mnangagwa’s Zanu PF is accused of using state resources to mobilise votes, while employing security forces to disrupt his rivals.
Precious cargo … The flight path taken by Antonov AN-124 flight VDA4482 / VI4482 which flew from Poland to Zimbabwe on Thursday, April 15, 2021
By Andrew Aloia BBC Sport Last updated on 11 October 2021 11 October 2021 . From the section Football Watson was a trailblazer who helped transform how football was played There are two murals of black footballers facing one another across an alleyway in Glasgow. One helped shape football as we know it, the other is Pele. Andrew Watson captained Scotland to a 6-1 win over England on his debut in 1881. He was a pioneer, the world's first black international, but for more than a century the significance of his achievements went unrecognised. Research conducted over the past three decades has left us with some biographical details: a man descended of slaves and of those who enslaved them, born in Guyana, raised to become an English gentleman and famed as one of Scottish football's first icons. And yet today, 100 years on from his death aged 64, Watson remains something of an enigma, the picture built around him a fractured one. His grainy, faded, sepia image evokes many differen...
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