Ex-Air Nam director wins defamation lawsuit

In a ruling delivered by judge Herman Oosthuizen, Nyandoro has now been awarded N$30 000 in damages, and Ekandjo was also directed to pay his legal costs.

In his ruling, Oosthuizen said Nyandoro proved that Ekandjo abused internal company grievance procedures to publish defamatory information about Nyandoro to the recipients of an email he sent on 29 January 2020.

Ekandjo “tendered mostly uncorroborated evidence” during the hearing of Nyandoro’s lawsuit, Oosthuizen remarked.

Oosthuizen noted that he got the impression Ekandjo was concerned about the well-being of Air Namibia. However, Ekandjo conceded that he had no facts to suggest Nyandoro sabotaged Air Namibia, the judge also said.

Ekandjo claimed in an email message addressed to former Air Namibia board chairperson Escher Luanda that there was strong evidence that Masule and Nyandoro had ignored sound advice on how to turn the airline around, and that this led to its collapse. The email was also sent to minister of works and transport John Mutorwa, his deputy at the time, Sankwasa James Sankwasa, former police inspector general Sebastian Ndeitunga, and two others.

Ekandjo also claimed there were opportunities for Air Namibia to be turned around by establishing new routes, such as between Windhoek and London, and by reducing the frequency of flights and equipment on the loss-making route between Windhoek and Frankfurt, but such efforts were thwarted or sabotaged by Masule and Nyandoro.

He further accused Nyandoro of forgery and sexual impropriety between 2008 and 2012, when Nyandoro was first employed by Air Namibia as head of training and standards. Nyandoro was supervised by Ekandjo at the time.

Oosthuizen stated in his judgement that Ekandjo tendered hearsay evidence only to the court in respect of his claims about sexual harassment and forgery.

He concluded that Ekandjo “dismally failed to prove the defence of fair comment in the public interest”.

Nyandoro argued in court that Ekandjo could not stomach his elevation to the Air Namibia board in January 2019. He charged last week that Ekandjo had sought to inflict maximum damage to his reputation through malicious and baseless allegations. “His motive seems to have been driven by sheer jealousy after I was appointed as a board member of Air Namibia,” he said.

Ekandjo told The Namibian last week he would not discuss the outcome of the case until he is advised by his legal team to do so.

“Bottom line is that Air Namibia is closed. Maybe the airline wasn’t going to be liquidated had anyone paid attention to my complaints. It is up to the public to judge the matter,” he said.

Lawyer Sisa Namandje represented Nyandoro in the matter. Ekandjo was represented by Natasha Ndilula-Ndamanomhata from the law firm Kadhila Amoomo Legal Practitioners.