File photo of several planes of South African Airways (SAA) park at the Johannesburg International Airport on July 23, 2005. (Xinhua Photo/Yuan Ye)

CAPE TOWN, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- South African Airways (SAA) said on Saturday it has stopped all its flights from Zimbabwe for the whole of Saturday.

The national carrier said it has taken the decision after one of its flights was stopped from taking off from Harare International Airport earlier in the day.

The airline said it was required by Zimbabwean authorities to produce a foreign operator's permit, although it has been operating in the country for over two decades.

But according to reports from Zimbabwe, the debacle came as one of the flights operated by Air Zimbabwe was prevented from leaving Johannesburg on Friday evening.

Zimbabwean authorities cited non-compliance as a factor for the grounding of the SAA flight.

Both SAA and Air Zimbabwe are said to have submitted the necessary compliance documents to resume flights.

The approval of the SAA certificate is expected to take a day, with SAA yet to confirm if Sunday flights will be operating as per normal.

"We are awaiting the decision by the Zimbabwean authorities to give us clearance to be able to operate," SAA spokesperson Tlali Tlali said.

SAA apologizes to its passengers and customers for the inconvenience that has been caused by this incident and the matter is receiving required and urgent attention in order to be resolved as quickly as possible, said the spokesperson.