ONGWEDIVA – Car rental owners have accused Profile Car Hire of owing them more than N$400 000 for using their vehicles to carry out the Namibian Statistics Agency (NSA) Mapping and Pilot Census between November last year and April this year.
Although the car owners were supposed to be paid monthly for car usage, they claim it has not been the case.
The initial contract was supposed to end in March but was further extended to April.
The car owners further alleged that until April, only some money was paid over to them but they have not received a single cent from the extension period.
In addition to the money of the car usage, they are yet to be paid for damages of their cars.
This includes payments for those whose cars were involved in accidents and those that were written off.
As a result of the pending car damages, some cars are still with Profile Investments, as the owners do not want to collect cars with unfixed damages.
They say, at the end of the contract, Profile had requested them to collect their cars while they wait to have them fixed.
“What will we do with damaged cars? These are rental cars, and we cannot rent out cars with dents to our clients,” said the group representative, who refused to be named.
Approached for comment, Profile Investments managing director Elia Erastus told New Era he was not at liberty to discuss the matter with “outsiders” because he will be breaching the confidentiality clause.
He further went on to say that someone could be sued for breaching the contractual agreement for discussing the matter.
“The story is not entirely correct but I cannot reply because of the agreement in place,” said Erastus.
Meanwhile, the car owners claim they are losing out on business, as their parked cars could have generated income.
The car owners further claimed Profile has from time-to-time informed them they cannot pay them because NSA owes them.
However, upon further enquiry from NSA insiders, they were informed that NSA has paid Profile in full and only owe them for car damages. NSA spokesperson Iipumbu Sakaria said NSA has settled an amount of N$10 436 145 to Profile Car Hire by 21 April 2021, which he said is not in dispute between the two parties.
“What is in dispute and before court is a claim of N$2.7 million in damages, which NSA cannot further comment on, since it is before court,” Sakaria said.