In the Court of Appeal: Alain St Ange v Seychelles government   Government to pay Alain St Ange almost R7 million in damages |14 August 2021

The Seychelles government will have to pay Alain St Ange the sum of R6,984,634.50 with interests after the Court of Appeal dismissed the Attorney General’s appeal but allowed that of the former tourism minister.

The costs are in respect of hotel, travel, and incident expenses for R3,098,065.90; in respect of loss of earnings for R2,886,568.60; and in respect of moral damages for R1,000,000.

“The sum awarded at Supreme Court level was barely enough to cover the filing fees, but did little to compensate for the tremendous expenses I had incurred during this campaign,” said Mr St Ange who was originally awarded R164,396.14 in damages by Supreme Court Judge Melchior Vidot in November 2019.

Mr St Ange was represented by Kieran Shah, Michelle St Ange-Ebrahim and Frank Elizabeth, while the state was represented by Stephan Knights.

The case in question refers to the 2017 incident when the Seychelles government recalled Mr St Ange’s nomination for the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) secretary general position.

This happened only a few days before the election took place in Madrid, Spain.

Upon his return home, former Tourism, Civil Aviation, Ports and Marine minister St Ange sued the government of Seychelles for withdrawing his endorsement documents for the post of UNWTO secretary general and for the humiliation he suffered.

By the time the Seychelles government withdrew Mr St Ange’s candidature, he had already incurred significant personal expenses in furtherance of his campaign efforts on an international stage.

Mr St Ange said he wanted to settle the matter amicably, but sought redress through the court system when his letters for compensation went unanswered by former President Danny Faure.

Giving details to the media on Wednesday May 10, 2017 as to why the government had decided to withdraw Mr St Ange’s candidacy, former Vice- President Vincent Meriton admitted that there had been a lack of communication among concerned parties, procedures had not been followed and the candidate not properly advised before submitting his candidature to take part in the race for the UNWTO secretary general position.

He added that Seychelles was threatened with a series of political, economic and other sanctions by the African Union (AU) if it did not withdraw Mr St Ange’s candidature.

It was a regrettable turn of events but a lot of lessons had been learned by government for the future, noted Mr Meriton who added that he personally informed Mr St Ange, who was already in Madrid for the vote, of the government’s decision before publicly making the announcement.

Former VP Meriton also told the local press that during a ministerial meeting in April the same year (2017) the AU asked Seychelles to pull out Mr St Ange’s candidature.

“But at this point there were no talks of any sanction,” former VP Meriton said. He said it was only through a formal note verbale dated May 8, 2017 that the AU formally requested the Seychelles government to withdraw its candidate from the race for the UNWTO secretary general position and noted that there were sanctions that could be applied to countries who fail to follow procedures in such circumstances.

Reacting to the news that government had recalled his nomination in an interview with www.touristswatch.com in Madrid, Mr St Ange said he received a statement from the Seychelles government recalling his nomination on Tuesday (May 9, 2017), which he claimed was moments after the AU threatened to impose sanctions on Seychelles.

It was unclear what warranted those sanctions but Mr St Ange believed it was the AU’s intention to force Seychelles out of the race in favour of Zimbabwean candidate, Dr Walter Mzembi.

“Africa is today losing because of the decisions taken by the African Union with a list of measures that will be imposed on Seychelles, which people are saying can be considered as blackmail, knowing full well that Zimbabwe cannot take it,” he said.

He explained that “the sanctions on Zimbabwe by the European community ensures that the world will not accept a man of (former President Robert) Mugabe to lead the world of tourism where the same people that have put Mugabe under sanction will be unable to work with him”.

Mr St Ange also called on the United Nations (UN) to disqualify Zimbabwe in fairness. “We (UN) cannot accept a block of countries to exert pressure to remove a genuine candidate. This is blackmail, and blackmail cannot be tolerated. UN should sanction Africa as a whole.”

Former minister St Ange, who was among the leading candidate after Georgian Zurab Pololikashvili, said he was disappointed Africa has lost its only chance at leading the world body.

“I believe it is a sad day for Africa because Africa had the chance for the first time ever to lead a world body, now they are losing the chance because of silly, domineering, dictatorial politics,” he said.

In 2019, St Ange was vindicated by the supreme Court, presided over by Judge Melchior Vidot, when he was awarded damages in the sum of R164,396.14. But Mr St Ange immediately instructed his lawyers to appeal against the quantum of damages only, as he felt that it did not reflect his expenses, pain, humiliation, and psychological damage that the decision caused him.

The elections for the post of secretary general of the UNWTO were held on Friday May 12, 2017 in Madrid, during the 105th session of the UNWTO executive council. Members voted for Zurab Pololikashvili from Georgia.

Gerard Govinden