An Airbus 220-300 that was leased by Air Tanzania, the east African county’s national carrier, has been impounded at Oliver Tambo Internatinal airport. The plane was due to fly out of Johannesburg on Friday to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.
According to eNCA, ‘Roger Wakefield of Werksmans Attorneys said his client, an elderly farmer who asked not to be named, was owed $33-million (about R504 million) — including interest — in compensation from the Tanzanian government after his land in the country was expropriated several decades ago.’
The plane was chosen because it is valued at a similar amount to the outstanding debt, Wakefield said.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons/Romain Coupy
The Tanzanian government admitted that it owes the farmer money and had made some payments previously. However, despite promises to pay the outstanding amount, ‘it has not made a payment since around 2014’, said Wakefield.
According to the Citizen, the farmer has been fighting for payment for years and was ‘declared a prohibited immigrant in Tanzania’ and now resides in another East African country. His lawyer said that this declaration was made on ‘baseless grounds’.
The farmer then hired lawyers in South Africa, ‘which is party to an international convention on the recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitration awards’ said the Citizen.
South African authorities did not comment on the situaton initally, although Tanzania’s transport ministry said in a statement that the plane was seized after an order was issued by the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg.
Air Tanzania’s managing director Ladislaus Matindi said that arrangements had been made to fly passengers who had missed their flight on the Airbus 220-300 to Dar es Salaam on another flight, said Reuters.
This isn’t the first time that a plane belonging to Air Tanzania has been seized. Canadian construction company Stirling Civil Engineering had the airline’s Bombardier Q400 seized in 2017, in Canada over a $38m (about R580 million) lawsuit.
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