By Nora Atah
The Cameroon National Airlines company, CAMAIR, has finally
closed down in the ongoing liquidation process. This follows a decision arrived at by the Bekolo cabinet- the liquidator mandated by the Minister of Finance, Lazare Essimi Menye. Some assets of the company have already been auctioned in Douala.
The doors of the company were officially closed on Saturday May 31, 2001, bringing to an end the reign of the one time 11th province in Cameroon. Some 400 workers to be laid off began packing out their personal effects from Thursday May 29, as the company's remaining movable property and office equipment has been on auction sale as from May 31 in the company's premises in Bonanjo, in a bid to raise funds for the payment of workers' salaries for the past three months.
The laid off workers were issued work certificates on Friday May 30, thus closing indefinitely their contracts and files with Camair. All this comes at a time when the principal plane of the company, the Boeing 767 that belongs to an Australian company-Ansett Worldwide- and often used by the Head of State, has been grounded for over 12 weeks because of technical problems and its navigability certificates seized by the Cameroon Civil Aviation Authority.
A meeting of liquidators, the syndicates and the personnel representatives of the defunct Camair held in Yaounde on June 2 and on June 5 in Douala, another meeting will hold to address the issue of indemnities to be paid to the laid off workers. The date for the take off of the newly created Camair-co is yet to be announced.
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