The lucrative airport passenger and cargo handling tender at the Hosea Kutako International Airport, which is subject to several legal suits, has gotten even more complicated. Menzies Aviation is currently seeking an interdict against the joint venture between Paragon Investment and Ethiopia Airlines over the takeover.

Menzies also claims to have entered into a new contract with the Namibia Airports Company (NAC) after their long-term contract ended on 30 June.

In June, the Windhoek High Court ordered that Menzies’ contract to provide handling services at HKIA shall cease on 30 June. The court also ordered the company to vacate occupation of any premises at the airport, and hand over all security access cards or other access equipment entitling it to access HKIA or any premises it occupied during its operations.

The court’s order was the result of the suit that was filed by the NAC after Menzies refused to hand over the reins to the joint venture which won the tender to replace it in December 2021.

Menzies has been providing passenger and cargo handling services at HKIA since February 2014. The joint venture was
meant to start its operations on 1 July.

In the current suit, Menzies wants an interdict against NAC, Paragon and its joint venture partner Ethiopia Airlines to implement the court’s order of June.

They have asked the court for the term of service to remain as is.

Menzies says the interdict must take effect until the court has resolved the review application, where it seeks a review of NAC’s decision to award the multi-million-dollar contract to the joint venture between Paragon and Ethiopia Airlines.

In the review application, Menzies also claim they were discriminated against on the basis that they are not Namibian, despite 51% of its shares being owned by locals. Furthermore, they said, NAC awarded the tender to a joint venture that did not meet bidding requirements, and it violated the law by awarding a tender exceeding N$25 million.

This, they say, is against the stipulated threshold, suggesting the Central Procurement Board of Namibia should have handled the bidding process. These allegations have been refuted by NAC, who claim that everything was above board with the tender process.

According to NAC CEO Bisey /Uirab, Menzies and two other companies did not meet the eligibility requirements, thus were disqualified. They allegedly failed to have some of their documents commissioned, while others were not initialled.  /Uirab claims that Menzies is not truthful, as it tried to inflate the tender by including the rental of the facilities at the airport into the bid.

According to him, the value of the bid was based on what Menzies paid out to NAC between July 2020 and June 2021. “The amount per annum was N$2.1 million. When considered over five years, the guaranteed income was below N$25 million,” said /Uirab.

This, he said, was the total value of the tender at the time when NAC invited bids. NAC maintains the award is within their threshold and did not exceed the N$25 million mark.  Furthermore, the financial proposal by Menzies is bad and “oppressive” to NAC, the company claimed.

Interdict application

In the interdict application, Menzies’ director Ian van Rooyen said after their contract came to an end in June, they entered into a new contract with NAC, where they have been providing handling services to date. This, Van Rooyen claims, was done as per a special request from NAC. “Any termination of the new ground-handling agreement and the concomitant lease agreements would need to be done pursuant to a reasonable notice period of at least 12 months,” he stated.

Van Rooyen said it is for this reason that they seek to continue rendering handling services at HKIA until such time the court had pronounced itself on the review application.

NAC had on 30 June, the same day the court ordered Menzies’s eviction from HKIA, informed its stakeholders that Menzies would continue providing handling services until further notice.  Thus, Van Rooyen claims if the interdict is not granted, it would be detrimental to Menzies if down the line, the court sets aside the tender awarded to Paragon and partner because of an invalid tendering process.

He said the company would have to retrench workers, de-stabilise the site, and move equipment into storage. They also risk losing revenue of N$5.2 million per month. “NAC can’t suffer any inconvenience, as by its own actions it has demonstrated that Paragon is ostensibly not able to perform in terms of the tender. That is why it entered into the current agreement with Menzies,” continued Van Rooyen.

Menzies is still adamant that Paragon and its partner do not have the capacity, and thus cannot safely offer ground-handling services as required. Only Paragon has indicated its intent to oppose the application.

- mamakali@nepc.com.na