The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on Tuesday released a communiqué defending the opening of Airway Coffee Ltd jointly owned by Nandanee Soornack and Rakesh Gooljaury, both alleged to be close to the ruling Labour Party – particularly the prime minister. According to the PMO and additional information gleaned by Weekly, here is what took place: in May 2009, Airports of Mauritius Ltd (AML) floated a tender to operate a food outlet at the departure and arrival terminals at the airport. The bid attracted six bidders, none of whom pledged to pay AML a sufficient chunk of their revenue (about 24 per cent), so the tender was floated again in December 2009. This time, Airway Coffee got it. This became a big theme animating the MSM when it went into opposition in 2011, and soon the link between the Soornack-Gooljaury empire and the Labour Party made headlines.

But why did the episode breed so much bad blood? The story, ironically enough, begins at the airport itself. That the allocation of businesses at the airport is a lucrative source of patronage to reward political cronies has so far been underexamined. The communiqué released by the PMO states that Rakesh Gooljaury – then close to the MSM - actually began his business at the airport as a supplier back in 2003, i.e. under the MMM-MSM government. Similarly, 18 days before the election in 2005, Gooljaury was granted a 97 square metre storefront under the name Designer Labels Ltd selling Hugo Boss, Ralph Lauren and Armani clothes at the airport, all without going through a tender. A parting gift from the MSM in the previous government, the PMO communiqué suggests. Gooljaury since then switched political loyalties to the Labour Party and brought in Nandanee Soornack as a business partner, eventually leading to the Airway Coffee episode. But the real politics behind the business at the airport goes much deeper than what the PMO is willing to concede, revealing a veritable musical chairs game of political favourites setting up shop there.

In effect, the opening of Airway Coffee by Labour Party cronies was just one salvo in a running turf battle that has seen businesses close to the MSM increasingly lose ground. Under the previous MMM-MSM administration, for example, the brother-in-law of MSM leader Pravind Jugnauth, Sanjiv Ramdanee won a contract to be the sole supplier of BOSE audio equipment to the airport, a fact indirectly referred to by the prime minister in a parliamentary exchange back in November 2013. At the same time, Ramdanee’s own brother-in-law Desmuk Kowlessur happened to own Tropical Times that formerly provided food and beverages at the airport terminal. In 2009, it was this Tropical Times that the Soornack-Gooljaury duo managed to dislodge to implant their own foothold in the form of Airway Coffee. What really happened in 2009 was that the AML floated two sets of tenders, one for a food establishment in the more lucrative departure lounge at the airport and the second in the less lucrative arrival lounge. Airway Coffee got the contract for the departure lounge, while Tropical Times managed to win the arrival one – the Soornack-Gooljaury combine did not bid for that one. But not only did Tropical Times have to make do with less, a major step-down from its previously hallowed position, but ultimately no restaurant was built in the arrival lounge, meaning that Tropical Times lost out completely.

But Tropical Times wasn’t the only MSM-allied business to concede ground. Also bidding was Mungroo and Sons Ltd, owned since 1987 by Bissoon Mungroo, famous for holding former MSM leader Sir Anerood Jugnauth’s birthday parties at his Manisa hotel in Flic-en-Flac. But Mungroo also has another axe to grind: prior to 2005, he also had the contract to transport airport employees to and from the airport, before losing it to another company close to the Labour Party with links to a socio-cultural group. Although some MSM-sympathisers lost out, it wasn’t a complete tabula rasa however; Ramdanee is still in the business supplying audio equipment to the airport. On the other hand, the Soornack-Gooljaury business empire is seeking to tighten its grip on business at the airport, launching Top Gear Express Car Wash in 2011, which now plans to operate a car wash operation close to the airport; further embittering the MSM-allied businessmen seeing themselves losing ground over what was previously their stomping ground.

This gradual receding of MSM-supporters from lucrative business opportunities following the departure of the MSM from government in 2011, with their places being taken by cronies loyal to the Labour Party, only served to heighten the bad blood between the Labour Party and the MSM. This turf war playing out in the background goes a long way in explaining the virulent war of words over the business of patronage at the airport.

The lesson to draw from these episodes is not limiting it to one particular episode or particular individuals. The real lesson to draw from this is the incestuous link between politics and business, how deep the rot has really set in and how just about everybody is guilty of that.

This article appeared in Weekly’s edition of 28th to 03rd september.