By Our
Correspondent, Johannesburg SOUTH AFRICA
A former
Tanzanian farmer who got order from Gauteng High court and impounded a Tanzania
airbus, Hermanus Steyn, has today
appealed against the release of the Airbus 220-300 from Oliver Tambo
International Airport; his lawyer has said.
Earlier
today, a South African court in Johannesburg had ordered the release of a
seized Tanzanian aircraft after over a week of detention at the airport.
According
to the The Namibian-born Tanzanian farm owner’s lawyer, Roger Wakefield, his
client has not agreed and is dissatified with the ruling and that the appeal is scheduled for
hearing later today.
The court
set aside the order to impound the aircraft and ordered further that the first
respondents (Steyn) pays the costs.
The August
24 seizure of the plane followed a court application by a retired farmer to
whom the Tanzanian government is to pay a compensation over a land
expropriation to the tune of $13 million including interest.
Although
Tanzania acknowledged the debt and initiated payments, the petitioner’s lawyers
confirmed that since 2014, the farmer has not received any payment.
The
impounding at the time was seen as a major blow for Air Tanzania, after
inaugurating its Johannesburg services just two months earlier.
Tanzania,
like a number of national fliers, have high hopes on the revival of the
national airline.
A move
targeted at transforming the country’s airline as a regional transport hub that
is expected to stimulate the tourism sector, its largest source of revenue.
In the
1980s, Tanzania's government nationalized a massive, privately-owned bean
and seed farm, seizing everything including equipment, 250 cars and 12 small
planes.
The farm
owner was awarded $33 million in compensation in the 1990s -- but the government
only paid $20 million.
The outstanding balance
of $16 million has accrued interest over the decades and now stands at $33
million, according to the lawyer who specializes in cross-border disputes.
The farmer has been
fighting for years to get the outstanding amount.
He was then declared a
prohibited immigrant in Tanzania on what his lawyer called "baseless
grounds", and he now lives in another East African country.
The farmer approached
lawyers in South Africa, which is party to an international convention on the
recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitration awards, in a bid to secure
the remaining money.
"Literally after
decades of broken promises, promises to pay, acknowledging the indebtedness,
the plaintiff was left with no option, he came to me," Wakefield said.
He said the plane was
seized "to certify a long outstanding debt to the plaintiff which the
government of Tanzania has always acknowledged was owing but they just breached
their undertaking".
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