Nearly four years since Namibia’s national airline Air Namibia took a nosedive, resurrecting the entity is high on Swapo presidential candidate Netumbo Nandi- Ndaitwah’s list, if her last push for votes on Sunday is anything to go by.
Speaking during the party’s star rally in Windhoek over the weekend, Nandi-Ndaitwah assured enthusiastic supporters that, if elected, her administration would explore avenues to revive the national carrier.
Air Namibia was liquidated in February 2021 due to financial viability concerns.
“We are going to review the opening of our Air Namibia,” she vowed.
She fell in love with the airline, as she frequently used it for 12 years when she was the minister of international relations.
“It was a policy in the ministry that unless the airline is fully-booked, that’s when you can book another airline. It can be expensive, but you are reinvesting your money, and that is how countries build themselves,” she remarked.
“If you don’t buy your own commodities because they are expensive and you buy cheaper from others, you are just growing other countries’ economies. Instead, sacrifice if you can buy expensive, and then your child and grandchild are going to buy it cheaper”, Nandi-Ndaitwah added.
This is not the first time that she has promised to revive Air Namibia.
She made a similar pledge during the launch of the party’s election manifesto.
The dynamics around the liquidation of the airline have in the past sparked political controversies.
Nandi-Ndaitwah is not alone.
Other prominent Swapo figures have also openly vented frustration over the airline’s demise. Those who hold this view premise it on assertions that its downfall was a well-orchestrated move to pave the way for private interests.
This is despite the government citing its inability to sustain the airline, and the impossibility of trading out of insolvency.
“The Swapo Party Youth League is saddened to learn that the planes which belonged to our now-liquidated national airline are being sold to Westair. We have always maintained that the liquidation of Air Namibia was a concocted move to pave the way for a private airline, at the expense of our national airline,” Ephraim Nekongo said at the time.
He added: “Like the nation at large as well as the Swapo-affiliated National Union of Namibian Workers, we relentlessly fought and objected to the liquidation of Air Namibia with the understanding of saving the jobs of our people, and to let the State continue playing an active role in the economy of our country by owning strategic assets such as an airline, as provided for in the preamble of the Swapo constitution.”
Reaction
Speaking to New Era, political scientist Ndumba Kamwanyah opined that Nandi-Ndaitwah’s promise was like a political stunt.
“It would have been helpful if she had said where the money is coming from, and also if she could explain why the current government cannot revive it if she is part and parcel of this government. So, why is she not pushing for the airline to be revived?” he questioned.
Echoing similar sentiments, economist Omu Kakujaha- Matundu said “proponents of resurrecting Air Namibia have not presented to the nation a business plan or model that would successfully bring back Air Namibia from the grave.”
“Let’s swallow our pride in not flying the Namibian flag on the tail of a bottomless pit. We can use those funds for other high-yielding projects,” the economist argued, adding that Air Namibia is not the biblical Lazarus.
He additionally warned that while a national airline is sometimes a nice-to-have, it is not a necessity.
“Airlines are not money-spinners. We have seen giant airlines collapsing,” he stressed.
“In the case of Air Namibia, flying the national flag drained the fiscus of billions in bailouts. Should Namibia want to invest in the airline business, a completely new model is needed, such as buying stakes in profitable airlines”, Kakujaha-Matundu continued.
-ashikololo@nepc.com.na