Ruling party pleads for resurrection of Air Namibia
In February 2021, the Namibian government opted to liquidate Air Namibia, refusing to pump money back into the debt-ridden carrier.
The South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) is pushing for the resurrection of Air Namibia, which is to be liquidated in February 2021 due to financial difficulties. One of the resolutions of the ruling political party's last congress, quoted by local website The Namibian on Monday 12 December 2022, calls for the revival of the defunct airline, with the rest of its aircraft that were not sold, including its Embraer and Airbus aircraft.
According to SWAPO, this is necessary to connect Namibia to countries in Southern and Eastern Africa, including South Africa (Johannesburg and Cape Town), Zambia (Lusaka), Zimbabwe (Harare), Botswana (Gaborone), Angola (Luanda), Mozambique (Maputo), Ethiopia (Addis Ababa) and Kenya (Nairobi).
The call for resurrection comes after ch-aviation and The Namibian revealed in January that South Africa's private airline BDS Airways had made a N$1.4 billion (US$79.77 million) bid to buy the carrier.
When asked by The Namibian, the deputy minister of finance and public enterprises said the resurrection of the company is not on the agenda at the moment. "It is not on the agenda for the next financial year. It is something that requires some planning," said Maureen Hinda-Mbuende. "When we have the money, I think it will be one of the areas we can invest in. I think that's a good thing. We have not closed the books," she said.
The Windhoek High Court ordered the liquidation of Air Namibia on 26 February 2021, at the request of the Namibia Airports Company. The state-owned Namibian airport operator was claiming a debt of USD 47.5 million for services rendered to it at various airports in the country from the end of October 2014 to February 2021. The liquidation was in line with the wishes of the government, which had previously refused to inject money back into the company's coffers, as it had regularly done.
At the time of its liquidation, Air Namibia had total liabilities of N$3.5 billion (US$235 million), the report by its liquidators, David Bruni and Ian McLaren, revealed. In detail, N$2.3 billion was owed to former business partners, N$693 million represented unpaid tax charges, N$408.7 million was unpaid bank loans, and N$105.51 million was unpaid severance payments to former employees.
