Air Namibia, loved but heartbreaking

AFTER all that has been done for Air Namibia since independence, the airline seems unwilling to fly past turbulent times.

In the past 25 years, the airline has had about four permanent managing directors and three acting ones and received more than N$4 billion in bailouts in the past 15 years.

Over the past three years alone, Air Namibia received N$2,4 billion from Treasury. They will get another N$1,93 billion in the next three years.

The controversial airline has been allocated N$579,8 million for the current 2015/16 financial year; N$722,4 million for 2016/17 financial year; and N$629,6 million for the 2017/18 financial year.

Until 1998, Air Namibia was under TransNamib and Andreas Guibeb was the chief executive officer. He was however demoted when the airline started flying solo.

A Malaysian national, Jafaar bin Ahmed, piloted the airline after Guibeb was demoted. Media reports at the time claimed that the government had injected N$3,5 million into the airline to push it towards privatisation.

The minister in charge of economic planning Tom Alweendo was the board chairperson.

In a bid to cut costs, Bin Ahmed planned retrench 150 people and settled for 11 managers he said would save the company a million dollars. He was suspended four years later.

In 2001, Bin Ahmed and the Alweendo-led board were dismissed. He left Air Namibia saddled with a US$300 million debt.

Founding President Sam Nujoma, set up a commission of inquiry into the airline’s operations, but the findings were never made public.

When Bin Ahmad was dismissed, Zimbabwean Peter Chikumba came in as the acting managing director with a new board chaired by Vekuii Rukoro. A few months into the flight, Rukoro resigned citing unbridled state interference into the airline’s operations. He was replaced by Joseph Shipepe on the board, while Leake Hangala took over as chairperson.

Chikumba was never confirmed and was dismissed a few months into the job on allegations of fraud involving tickets.

Chikumba later joined Air Zimbabwe as the chief executive officer and was jailed early this year over a US$10 million fraud. Media reports on Wednesday indicated that Chikumba has been released on US$3 000 bail.

Gernot Riedel succeeded Chikumba in 2002 and acted for about two years before the appointment of Kosmos Egumbo.

As part of the government’s plan to change the airline’s governance, a new board consisting of civil servants, mainly undersecretaries was appointed in 2004 to serve with Egumbo.

In 2010, Egumbo did not renew his contract and left the airline. He also did not get a golden handshake. Theo Namases came on as the acting boss before she was confirmed in 2012.

During Namases’ tenure as acting boss, then works minister Errki Nghimtina instituted an investigation into the operations of Air Namibia, which officially started in April 2013. However, the findings of the N$60 million probe were also never made public.

Namases was suspended last year in June after she was charged with 17 counts of misconduct of which nine were related to civil aviation. Rene Gsponer was appointed acting MD.

In her defence, Namases pointed out that she was never brought before a disciplinary hearing for about a year after which she decided to settle with the previous board several weeks before their terms ended in June.

Namases was given more than N$3 million as a send-off.

According to a copy of the draft audit report seen by The Namibian, Namases had contravened the Anti Corruption Act and had breached her employment contract as well. The company could not explain why they had not acted on the recommendations given in the audit report after sitting on them for more than a year.

Gsponer, who as chief operations officer was appointed to act until last month when a new board led by Gerson Tjihenuna appointed advocate Mandi-Ellaine Samson as the new acting boss. The airline has however advertised the post.

Namibia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NCCI) executive Tarah Shaanika on Wednesday said the airline’s work is complex and that Air Namibia’s woes are not unique.

However, Shaanika said the airline can use domestic flights which seem to generate more income to move closer to profitability.

Retired former DTA parliamentarian Johan de Waal on Wednesday said the airline should try to forge alliances with other airlines and hire experts to take over.

“There is a reason why other countries are entering into alliances. Lufthansa and other European countries have these agreements but we are trying to go at it alone. There is a saying that it is better to have an alliance with a company that makes N$10 million profit and own 20% shares instead of having 90% shares and make no profit,” said De Waal.

“We cannot get on just anyone. It needs to be somebody who has context, experience, knowledge and is an expert with a senior job at that specific airline. He can be hired for five years to assist us. It is important to note that this person should not be somebody who is recruited through a job advertisement, we must go and hunt for them in their country,” said De Waal.

Speaking to The Namibian via email from France, Guibeb said before he left, he took Bin Ahmed to Johannesburg and Frankfurt to introduce him to the chiefs of companies to ensure that the partnership alliance negotiations he had started were followed through.

“Regrettably, this did not happen. I have no idea why. Maybe, because alliance partnerships were not a priority for my successor and because every new Air Namibia chief executive claims the right to follow his/her own strategy and make his/her own mistakes,” said Guibeb.

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