By Edgar Brandt
WINDHOEK – Daggers are drawn at the national airline, Air Namibia, after the acting managing director circulated a memo stating that the reinstatement of Jonas Sheelongo to his position of general manager for technical and operations is “with limited responsibilities”.
The memo to staff from the acting managing director, Swiss national Rene Gsponer, is said to be the latest unleashing of the cat among the pigeons, rattling staff already concerned with the boardroom power jostling between the newly created foreign expatriate executive committee and the experienced long serving executives, as well as with the on-going “business re-engineering” and “fit for purpose structure” process that seek to slash the number of staff to about 590 people from the current more than 700 staff members.
Sheelongo confirmed to New Era that he has finally reported for duty, after nearly 12 months on suspension, half of which he spent waiting for the airline to heed the ruling by Labour Court that he be reinstated.
“I can confirm that I have been reinstated as of December 12, 2014,” said Sheelongo but declining to comment further on the case, only saying: “I am not at liberty to discuss the charges brought against me in the suspension.”
New Era understands that although Sheelongo has been reinstated with the title of General Manager: Technical and Operations reporting to the Managing Director, his responsibilities and working conditions have been revised, effectively stripping him of any executive decisions while also limiting his working scope in the department. Sheelongo’s position has been divided into three executive positions, all which are filled by expatriates as general managers.
The revision of his responsibilities, work scope and working conditions was done while he was still on suspension, which is against labour laws, as he was not found guilty of any offense. Sheelongo also only found out that he has been relocated to a different office when he reported for duty.
Gsponer did not respond to a list of detailed questions e-mailed to his office via the office of the Head for Corporate Communications, Paul Nakawa, although they acknowledged receipt of the e-mail. Follow up phone calls and text messages to mobile phones of Gsponer and Nakawa were not returned.
The questions asked Air Namibia to clarify, among others, the duties and responsibilities assigned to Sheelongo, as well whether it was true or not that he had been given “a special assignment”, that seemed to side line him from the normal day to day executive responsibilities formerly attached to his position.
New Era understands that the “special project” or “assignment” is to do with the outstanding matter of the airline-leasing contract between Air Namibia and BCI Aircraft, a foreign plane leasing company. BCI Aircraft is said to owe Air Namibia hundreds of millions of dollars. Sheelongo is said to have been one who raised the alarm about BCI Aircraft’s irregularity before his suspension.