Harare, November 24, 2009 – A plane carrying Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was on Tuesday morning forced to return back to South Africa after it developed a technical fault.

The SA Airlink had entered the Zimbabwean airspace when the incident occurred. The plane landed safely back in South Africa at the OR Tambo International Airport.

Tsvangirai’s spokesperson, James Maridadi, confirmed the incident to Radio VOP. “The plane was forced to turn back after developing a technical fault. The Prime Minister was in the plane but it landed safely back in Johannesburg. He later travelled back home on another flight.”

A few days ago in South Africa, another SA Airlink aircraft with 32 passengers on board left a runway at the Port Elizabeth airport although none of the passengers or the crew members on board were injured.

In September four people were injured, two critically, in the crash of a South African Airlink Jetstream 41 turboprop. The aircraft had just departed Durban on a positioning flight to Pietermaritzburg when the crew declared an emergency due to an engine failure. The air-plane crashed near a school perimeter shortly after. Both pilots were injured critically, and a flight attendant suffered serious injuries. An employee working on the school’s grounds was also slightly injured. There were no passengers aboard.

Tsvangirai was returning back home from an official visit in North Africa where he met the Libyan leader Moamar Ghadaffi who is also the chairman of the African Union (AU). He also visited Morrocco on his visit.

Tsvangirai was in Libya to brief the AU chairman on developments in Zimbabwe’s coalition government.

AU together with SADC are the guarantors of the Zimbabwe political agreement which led to the establishment of the all inclusive government between President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF and the two MDC parties led by Tsvangirai and his Deputy Arthur Mutambara.

Tsvangirai was supposed to get back home in time for a cabinet meeting.

Additional Reporting: Radio VOP