Martin Rushmere
FINANCIAL VENGEANCE has at last caught up with Zimbabwe's bankrupt cargo airline Affretair, in the form of forced liquidation.
Merchant Bank of Central Africa, owed R5 million in overdue borrowings between 1996 and 1998, successfully sought a High Court order last week for the airline's liquidation to recover the debt.
And for the first time the airline's sorry state of affairs was made public. In papers before the court, it emerged that at the end of last
year total assets
were Z$122 million
(R20 million) compared with liabilities of Z$511 million (R80 million).
This time it seems there is no pardon from a long-awaited stay of execution for an enterprise that has been characterised by inefficiency and high costs since being bought by the government almost 20 years ago.
Last year the ministry of transport persuaded the merchant bank's lawyers to hold back, supposedly to prepare for privatisation.
The ministry secretary, Christian Katsande (arrested this month as part of an anti-corruption drive), said then that President Robert Mugabe was due to approve the sale of the airline by the end of this month.
We feel if you continue with the action, this
would certainly jeopardise
privatisation and affect
horticultural exports, said Katsande.
There is no possibility of this or any other sale happening for the next six months, as Mugabe is preoccupied with his political future.
Affretair's total debts are now more than R200 million, most of them overdue.
With no aircraft left, there has been no alternative but to lease space on other carriers, principally DHL - which is now also owed millions in overdue debts.
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