Ramatex warehouses may be sold
Parties sign settlement agreement
A protracted court case between the Windhoek municipality and Ramatex's liquidators, which began in 2010, came to an end yesterday.
Under a settlement agreement, the liquidators of Ramatex Textiles Namibia will sell eight of the giant warehouses on the site in Windhoek and rehabilitate the land.This is the end of a court case between the liquidators and the City of Windhoek (CoW) that lasted 13 years.
One of the provisions of the agreement is that the municipality will receive 30% of the net income from two of the eight warehouses.
These warehouses are known as the Tai-Wah warehouses and the municipality claimed that Ramatex was not entitled to receive compensation for the construction of those two buildings as it had signed the lease agreement with Tai-Wah.
Ramatex claimed to have provided the financing to erect these two buildings.
The warehouses' value is determined by liquidators David Bruni, Ian McLaren and Simon Steyn.
In terms of the settlement agreement, the sale and rehabilitation process must be completed within three years.
"If the land on which the warehouses are built has not been rehabilitated by the end of these three years, the municipality will be within the right to appoint an independent contractor to carry out the rehabilitation at a reasonable amount and the liquidators' expense," according to the settlement agreement.
The settlement further stipulates that even after three years - if the sales and rehabilitation process has not been completed - the municipality can take ownership of the material remaining on the property, which includes the warehouses or parts thereof.
The municipality will continue to provide the security services for the time being pending the finalization of the removal of the warehouses.
Background
The CoW owns the property that Ramatex leased a portion of, but after Ramatex went into voluntary liquidation after being declared bankrupt in 2008, the CoW instructed the company to vacate the property.
Ramatex is said to have erected certain buildings and made almost N$80 million worth of improvements to the property during its lease period. The municipality allegedly suffered losses of around N$22.4 million. The court cases between the liquidators and municipality dealt with the ownership, occupation and control of the property as well as who is liable for the losses and who will benefit from the upgrading of the property.
Although there were initially two separate cases between the Ramatex liquidators and the municipality - one filed in 2010 and the other in 2013 - the cases were joined in June 2022.
Parties were this week ready to proceed with the trial, which was scheduled for the next few weeks in the High Court in Windhoek before Judge Herman Oosthuizen, but parties settled and the settlement agreement was made an order of the court yesterday morning.
In terms of the agreement, each party must pay its costs and may not make any further claims against each other. –[email protected]