Fired NAC board questions Nekundi’s power to remove them

Renthia Kaimbi

The five former members of the Namibia Airports Company (NAC) Board of Directors who were sacked by works and transport minister Veikko Nekundi on Tuesday have broken their silence, expressing dismay while mounting a defence of their tenure.

In a media statement issued collectively on Thursday, the ousted directors, Elizabeth Renay Peterson, Lucien Lleweyllyn Mouton, Matheus //Gowaseb, Carol Rosheta Williams, and Ferdinand Nghiyolwa, rejected the minister’s characterisation of their conduct as unlawful and grossly negligent, raising questions about the legality of the decision to remove them.

The former board members painted a picture of the NAC’s condition when they assumed responsibility, describing an institution reeling from financial, operational and governance pressures that were subsequently worsened by the collapse of the aviation industry during the COVID-19 pandemic.

They detailed how the company recorded a loss of approximately N$111.7 million during the 2020/2021 financial year, followed by a N$93.7 million loss in 2022.