Namibia Airports Company: Another Air Namibia looming? (Part 3)

PLANE SPOTTER WRITES:

According to the article “Airports Company turns to private sector” in a recent edition of The Namibian (15-02-2021), Mr /Uirab says that the NAC requires N$143 million for capital works at Hosea Kutako.

He says that to date they have spent N$154 million. Presumably of the N$250 million obtained in 2019 so there should still be N$100 million of this money available?

So, if they knew what they were doing when they asked for N$155 million from tax payers in 2019, what do they now need a further N$143 million for, or was the N$100 million used for unspecified expenses such as Xmas bonuses?

Mr. /Uirab goes on to state that the amount of money needed for the next 5 years is N$1.3 billion and he invites the private sector to invest in these future plans.

Of course, if he and his management (and Board under Dr. Leake Hangala) had applied Business Management 101 principles and collected the N$700 million owed to them by Air Namibia as and when it was due, they would already have had more than half of their funding requirements for their 5-year plan. Now they are going to have to stand in the queue with other creditors hoping for perhaps 10 cents in the N$ (if they don't have to contribute to the costs of winding up) from Air Namibia's insolvent estate.

I wonder what makes them think that any private investor conducting due diligence would be sufficiently impressed (and stupid enough) to believe that their money would be safe?

The demise of Air Namibia has been an unfortunate but wholly predictable event for anyone who watched the never-ending bailouts, ever-increasing employee numbers and illogical routes such as Accra and Durban. (A case of, “have aeroplane, will fly"!?).

However, the vacuum left by Air Namibia will quickly be filled by other airlines, and tourism and business travel and cargo services will continue to thrive (after Covid-19) as long as Namibia's airport infrastructure meets domestic and international legal requirements. This is the scary part.

If government (or the private sector) cannot (will not?) give the NAC the funds it requires or if they are provided (by the GIPF?) and get mismanaged and squandered by an incompetent management and Board of Directors, the chances are excellent that the NAC will not be able to meet ICAO and local requirements and then Namibia can say goodbye to tourism and business travel, internationally, regionally and to a lesser extent domestically.

Air Namibia, the Namibia Airports Company and some other parastatals have shown that management expertise (was) is completely lacking and now NAC would like the private sector to trust it with managing their money. The sad thing is that Namibia has a small population with a very small pool of well qualified and skilled people who can run complex businesses. It also has a large pool of semi-skilled and poorly qualified people who mistakenly believe that when one leaves Unam with a “Masters” and no experience, you are equipped to step into the position of CEO of one of these complex businesses. It just does not wash.

The further sad thing is that due to government's employment policies which discriminate against people on the basis of colour, many of the well qualified and skilled people have left Namibia for countries such as Canada, New Zealand, Australia, the UK and Germany who, in spite of already having many competent people, recognise that you can never have too many skilled and well qualified people if you want to develop your economy. So, while these countries have gained from the Namibian government's policy, Namibia has been the dismal loser.