{"id":47434,"date":"2026-01-14T04:04:50","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T04:04:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=47434"},"modified":"2026-01-14T04:04:50","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T04:04:50","slug":"our-air-force-cant-save-another-rosita","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2026\/01\/14\/our-air-force-cant-save-another-rosita\/","title":{"rendered":"Our air force can&#8217;t save another Rosita"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p><h2>Her rescue once symbolised hope, but Rosita&#8217;s death now raises uncomfortable questions about what South Africa has lost.<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>It is sad that Rosita Salvador Mabuiango \u2013 the Mozambican woman who became known worldwide as a \u201cmiracle baby\u201d after being born during the devastating floods of 2000 \u2013 and plucked to safety by a South African Air Force (SAAF) helicopter \u2013 has died following a long illness. <\/p>\n<p>The photo of her and her mother being winched to safety in a BK 117 chopper above swirling muddy water went around the world \u2013 at once a symbol of hope, as well as the triumph of the human spirit. <\/p>\n<p>Rosita, even though she lost her struggle in the end, was gifted more than 25 years of a life celebrated by her family. <\/p>\n<p>The news is also a timely reminder of the importance of the \u201csupport to the civil power\u201d function of the SA National Defence Force. <\/p>\n<p><strong>ALSO READ: \u2018SANDF couldn\u2019t defend country\u2019: SA defenceless against major military powers<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A well-equipped military can save lives, as well as take them. The helicopters of 22 Squadron of the SA Air Force (SAAF) gave a hand in recent days to aerial firefighting efforts in the fire-tortured Western Cape. <\/p>\n<p>Sadly, because our government has consistently underfunded our military for the past three decades, that exercise was little more than a display, because the SAAF doesn\u2019t have the budget to do more. <\/p>\n<p>Today, we couldn\u2019t save another Rosita\u2026<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#air #force #save #Rosita<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Her rescue once symbolised hope, but Rosita&#8217;s death now raises uncomfortable questions about what South Africa has lost. It is&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47435,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47434"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47436,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47434\/revisions\/47436"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}