Company evicted from abattoir

The Windhoek High Court has ordered the eviction of Witvlei Meat from an abattoir which is owned by the Agricultural Bank of Namibia. An agreement for the sale of the abattoir, signed by the two parties in June 2015, replaced a 2006 lease agreement. However, it was voided when the company failed to deliver a financial guarantee to the bank, Justice Herman Oosthuizen has ruled. The Namibian reports that he ordered the eviction of the company from the premises and instructed it to pay the bank’s legal costs. Witvlei Meat had used the facilities to slaughter cattle for the Norwegian export market. The company had repeatedly expressed its dissatisfaction about the allocation of the Norwegian beef export quota with the Meat Corporation of Namibia and shut down its operation in 2014, but since then continued to insist it had a right to buy the property from the Agribank. The bank was represented by senior counsel Raymond Heathcote who was assisted by Sakeus Akweenda. Mueller Legal Practitioners represented Witvlei Meat.