In its unwavering legal litigation over the ground-handling tender at Hosea Kutako International Airport, Menzies was once again dealt a hard blow by the High Court yesterday.

Judge Shafimana Ueitele dismissed Menzies’ application with cost where it wanted to execute the court’s ruling of 8 August despite it and its competitor Paragon having lodged appeals against that judgement.

In that judgement, the court said NAC’s eviction notice was unreasonable and suggested that a 30-day eviction notice would be reasonable.

Yesterday, Ueitele said the court cannot grant leave to Menzies to execute that ruling when there are appeals pending before court. 

However, the court ordered NAC to allow Menzies access to its cargo at the HKIA.

“The Airports Company must, if it is still necessary, on reasonable and lawful terms it may determine, allow Menzies access to the warehouse that contains cargo which was consigned to Menzies to deliver that cargo to the consignees,” said Ueitele.

He deemed the matter finalised and removed it from the court’s roll.

Menzies has been embroiled in a legal battle with NAC after the company lost out on a ground handling tender to a joint venture between Paragon Investment and JV Ethiopia in December 2021.

It now has a pending review application before the High Court where it wants the court to declare that NAC is a category one public entity and in terms of the law, may not handle a bidding process of a tender that exceeds N$25 million. 

According to Menzies, the tender handled by NAC and awarded to the joint venture exceeds the threshold, suggesting that the Central Procurement Board of Namibia should have handled the bidding process.

The company also wants the court to review and set aside NAC’s decision to declare its bid invalid because it failed to initial all its pages and certify its registration documents. 

Furthermore, Menzies wants the court to set aside NAC’s decision to award the joint venture the tender and disqualify it.

Apart from the decisions to be reviewed, Menzies wants section 4(2) of the Public Procurement Act, 15 of 2015 declared unconstitutional.

This matter will be heard on 1 December.

The Supreme Court is yet to determine the appeal filed by Menzies on 1 September against the High Court’s judgment where Menzies’ application to retain control of some areas of HKIA was dismissed. 

Menzies also has undermined suit before the Supreme Court where it is appealing the High Court’s suggestion of a 30-day notice to vacate HKIA citing it was not the court’s place to do so. It further argues that the determination of a notice period falls under the jurisdiction of the NAC and should not have been made by the court.

-mamakali@nepc.com.na