AIR Zimbabwe has insisted the High Court is yet to determine an application for judicial management by workers claiming to be owed about $35 million in unpaid salaries and vowed to “vigorously” fight the case.
Caleb Mucheche, the lawyer representing worker said at the weekend the struggling airline now faced possible liquidation after the High Court appointed a judicial manager and barred the Air Zimbabwe board from any involvement with the company.
"Since the court has appointed a judicial manager it means that this is a prelude to liquidation. The judicial manager will now move in and the current AirZim board will have to step aside," Mucheche told state media.
"The judicial manager will assess if Air Zimbabwe is still a going entity, but as the way things stand all is not well he is likely to recommend liquidation. That is the process. Whenever a judicial manager comes in, the next step is liquidation."
But in a statement Monday acting chief executive, Innocent Mavhunga said the High Court was still to make a ruling.
"The airline was only served with a court application on Monday the 23rd of January 2012 in which certain individuals purporting to represent the workers are seeking to place the airline under judicial management," Mavhunga said.
"The majority of the workers under the Applicant unions have distanced themselves from the court application which is clearly a mischievous but grievous assault on the interests of the workers. For this and other material reasons, the Airline will defend the matter most vigorously."
Air Zimbabwe is battling a US$140 million debt pile including obligations to the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA), National Social Security Authority (NSSA) as well as the workers’ medical aid and pension schemes.
Creditors seized the company’s planes in South Africa and the United Kingdom last December in a bid to force payment.
A Boeing 737-500 was briefly held at OR Tambo airport in Johannesburg over while an American firm also impounded the long-haul Boeing 767-200 at London’s Gatwick airport.
The airline has since been forced to pull-out of the lucrative London and Johannesburg routes to prevent similar actions by restive creditors.
Management has been pressing the cash-strapped coalition government to take-over the company's debts in order to facilitate the restructuring of the company.
The company’s troubles have worsened at a time global carriers are returning after ditching the country as its economic challenges worsened in the last decade.
Already, the United Arab Emirates-owned, Emirates Airlines has announced it will start flying into the country from the beginning of next month.