Trial delay for Lameck and co

Werner Menges

Teckla Lameck

The trial of Lameck and her two co-accused was supposed to resume before Acting Judge Maphios Cheda yesterday after a postponement of nearly three months, but has now been postponed for another two weeks.

The three accused did not hide their displeasure when they heard that their trial would not be continuing as planned at this stage.

The reason for the postponement was two-fold. With the Mandarin interpreter who had been assisting Yang during the first phase of the trial in April and May no longer available, another interpreter had not yet been employed to take the place of the first by yesterday. The prosecution also asked to be given time until tomorrow to arrange the next witnesses it plans to call to the witness stand.

Acting Judge Cheda decided to postpone the case to 27 August, to give the State and the court official responsible for securing the services of an interpreter sufficient time to get their affairs in order.

Lameck, Mokaxwa and Yang are charged with fraud and money laundering over a transaction in which Chinese-made security scanning equipment was bought by the Ministry of Finance at a total cost of US$55,3 million (then about N$477 million) in May 2008.

It is alleged that the price of the equipment was inflated to enable the manufacturer, Nuctech, which was being represented by Yang, to pay a “commission” of at least US$12,828 million (N$128,3 million at the exchange rate at that time) to Teko Trading, a close corporation of Lameck and Mokaxwa. Teko Trading had signed an agency agreement with Nuctech.

The three accused have pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Lameck and Mokaxwa are also accused of having defrauded a Swapo-owned company, Namib Contract Haulage, between December 2006 and June 2009 by getting the company to pay inflated prices for lorries that it was buying in China.

Lameck is facing six charges alone under the Anti-Corruption Act. Those charges are based on an allegation that while she held office as a member of the Public Service Commission – her term came to an end in October last year – she did not have the required consent from President Hifikepunye Pohamba to also do other paid work, such as her involvement in Teko Trading CC.

The three accused are further charged with contraventions of the Immigration Control Act in connection with a work permit which was allegedly issued to Yang in 2007 to allow him to be employed by Namib Contract Haulage. The prosecution is charging that he was in fact working for Nuctech and later for Teko Trading during that time.

Most of the evidence given by the 14 witnesses who have so far testified in the trial has focused on the Namib Contract Haulage truck transaction, the employment permit that was granted to Yang, and the question whether Lameck asked for the President’s permission to be engaged in paid work besides her position with the Public Service Commission, or whether she in fact needed to ask for the President’s approval.