From Business Day Live.

Despite its failure to launch in South Africa in May as planned, London-based FastJet won’t give up on its intentions to be a low-cost Pan-African carrier, according to a report in Business Day Live.

FastJet is flying successfully from Tanzania but expansion in East Africa has been grounded because of disputes with former management at a regional African airline it bought, the report says.

The airline is also in conflict of interest disputes with a former subsidiary in Zimbabwe and has failed in its bid to buy the bankrupt 1time in South Africa.

FastJet set up a company in South Africa that has the required 75-percent local shareholding to own an airline, and made a deal with President Jacob Zuma’s son Edward and other connected businessmen, according to Business Day Live.

“Africa is a difficult place to do business — it is not open skies,” said Stelios Haji-Ioannouat, one of FastJet’s key stakeholders, at the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards Thursday. But he said he was willing to take a five-year view on the deal.

Read more at Business Day Live.