adminNHS and its board, according to the Government, should be disbanded and the shares transferred to an unnamed company that is wholly owned by Government.
The National Airways Workers Union and the Air Transport Union view the development as a way of stripping the airline of its assets thereby rendering the application filed in January this year a mere academic exercise of no real value.
In a letter by Transport Communication and Infrastructural Development permanent secretary, Mr Patson Mbiriri to Airzim group chief executive on 26 March this year, Government categorically stated that NHS was no longer a subsidiary of Air Zimbabwe.
“Pursuant to the Cabinet decision on Air Zimbabwe Holdings on 28 February 2012, Air Zimbabwe should immediately transfer its shareholding in National Handling Services to a nominee company that is wholly owned by Government.
“The nominee company will hold Government shares in NHS.
“For the avoidance of doubt, NHS is no longer a subsidiary of Air Zimbabwe Holding Private Limited.
“This letter serves to notify you of this new position of Government and request your office to work with the interim board of NHS and NHS management to effect the separation of NHS from Air Zimbabwe Holdings, taking into account policy, legal, regulatory, financial and human resource aspects,” the letter read.
The same letter was also copied to the Minister of Transport, Communication and Infrastructural Development Nicholas Goche.
In light of the letter and its contents, the workers have mounted an urgent chamber application at the High Court seeking to block the transfer of the shares.
Through their lawyers Matsikidze and Mucheche, the workers contend that Air Zimbabwe wholly owned NHS and that the transfer should be stopped.
“The fourth respondent (Air Zimbabwe) currently has the complete shareholding of NHS and hence when the application for an order placing the two entities under provisional judicial management was made, it also canvassed the interests of Air Zimbabwe in any other concern.
“Air Zimbabwe assets were rendered res litigiosa by the instigation of the application. It would be wrongful for respondents to deal as they seek to and that will put the court in the precarious situation of having to hear and determine a merely academic matter,” the application read.
The workers argue that the Government was trying to strip the assets of Air Zimbabwe.
In a certificate of urgency filed by Advocate Lewis Uriri on behalf of the workers, Air Zimbabwe was facing placement under judicial management over a cumulative debt in excess of $140 million.
Adv Uriri said the application was still pending and that it was far from reaching a conclusion.
Justice Andrew Mutema last week reserved judgment on the urgent chamber application after hearing arguments from both the airline lawyers and those of the workers. The workers filed the application for provisional judicial management on January 23 this year at the High Court.
On 6 February, Air Zimbabwe shareholders opposed the application.
While the determination is pending, the workers have filed heads of argument on the main matter and they are now awaiting the setting down of the matter for hearing.
The workers got information of the intended “hiving off”of Air Zimbabwe by the Government on 2 April this year prompting them to file an urgent chamber application to bar any transfer of NHS shares.
Online Reporter