Staff Reporter
THE Windhoek High Court has ordered the Namibia Airports Company (NAC) to reinstate PUMA Energy Namibia on the premises of airports so that it may resume aviation fuelling services.
The order comes after the NAC in March 2026 allegedly locked out employees of PUMA Energy from Eros and Ondangwa airports, preventing them from providing aviation fuelling services.
The multinational Swiss company thus approached the High Court and initiated a spoliation application in which PUMA sought to be reinstated on the premises of Eros and Ondangwa airports.
In a judgment, High Court Acting Judge James Devittie explained that PUMA Energy Namibia sought an order declaring the Namibia Airports Company Ltd (NAC) and the second to twelfth respondents to be in contempt of orders granted by Judge Komboni on 2 April 2026 and 22 June 2026.
“On 2 April 2026, Komboni J granted a mandament van spoliation directing NAC to restore PUMA’s possession of specified premises and refuelling facilities at Eros and Andimba Toivo ya Toivo Airports. Although physical possession of the specified premises was subsequently restored, NAC maintained that the order did not require it to permit PUMA to resume its aircraft refuelling business. The principal issue was therefore whether, properly construed, the order was confined to the restoration of physical possession or also required NAC to permit PUMA to continue conducting its refuelling business,” the judge said.
He added that, in his judgment, he established that Komboni J regarded PUMA’s possession as comprising two intertwined aspects: the corporeal possession of the premises and the incorporeal possession constituted by the exercise of its refuelling business.
“It encompassed both the corporeal possession of the specified premises and facilities and the incorporeal aspect constituted by the exercise of PUMA’s refuelling business from those premises. The order therefore required NAC not merely to restore physical possession but also to permit PUMA to continue conducting its refuelling business,” Devittie said.
He thus concluded that the NAC had not complied with the order.
The judge, however, found that the NAC had obtained and acted upon detailed legal advice that restoration of physical possession constituted compliance with the order and thus did not wilfully ignore the court order by refusing to allow PUMA to resume aviation fuelling services.
“Wilfulness and mala fides were therefore not established beyond reasonable doubt,” Judge Devittie concluded on the aspect of contempt.
He thus ordered that the NAC restore PUMA’s possession of the airport premises in accordance with the order of this Court granted on 2 April, pending an appeal in the Supreme Court lodged by PUMA, which seeks to overturn a decision by the NAC to grant another company, Central Oil Namibia (Pty) Ltd, a tender to carry out aviation fuelling services.
Picture for illustrative purposes only. Photo: File
