Africa-Press – Namibia. AGRIBANK is inviting tenders for the disposal of the idle Witvlei abattoir and related properties the bank owns in the Omaheke region.
This was confirmed by Agribank’s spokesperson, Fillemon Nangonya, on Friday.
“The tender has been advertised and it is for Agribank’s investment properties at Witvlei, which comprise the abattoir, adjacent properties and certain erven located at Witvlei,” he said.
Of interest will be the sale of the abattoir, which provided the people of the small town, situated 155km east of Windhoek, a source of livelihood.
Agribank’s decision to sell the facility comes at a time more than 500 commercial cattle producers have pooled resources to raise N$200 million to set up Savannah Beef Namibia, a company that is set to be in direct competition with the state-owned Meat Corporation of Namibia (Meatco) for control of the Namibian meat market.
So far the company has already raised N$146 million to start operations.
Witvlei abattoir is an export beef facility that was previously leased to Witvlei Meat, a company owned by businessman Sidney Martin, for N$250 000 per month since 2006.
This was until the agreement was terminated in 2015 after Martin allegedly breached the agreement to buy the facility from Agribank for N$15 million.
The matter became the subject of a drawn-out court battle which Witvlei eventually lost in the High Court when judge Herman Oosthuizen ordered the company to be ejected from the property in October 2019.
At the time Witvlei Meat employed about 200 permanent and contract workers, and slaughtered cattle for the Norwegian market.
According to an advert in the media on Friday, tenders will close on 4 August 2022, while the inspection or viewing of the properties is scheduled for 19 July, starting at 10h00.
This is not the first time Agribank is trying to sell the Witvlei abattoir, having tried to do so in September 2021 but finding no takers.
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