THE High Court inquiry into the Social Security Commission’s supposed investment of N$30 million through a fatally inexperienced asset management company, Avid Investment Corporation, is set to resume today on the knife-edge on which it had been adjourned a week ago.
The witness who had made some of the most startling claims yet in the three-week-old enquiry before Acting Judge Raymond Heathcote, Windhoek teacher Christophine Kandara, is expected to return to the witness stand to face further cross-examination today. Kandara is the wife of Lazarus Kandara.According to the evidence so far placed before Acting Judge Heathcote, Lazarus Kandara was the person who was in control of Avid, even if his name never featured on any of the written correspondence between Avid and the SSC in connection with the money that the SSC was persuaded to invest through Avid for a four-month period from late January.The inquiry was adjourned on Wednesday last week, shortly after Mrs Kandara had made sensational claims about possible kickbacks having been given on her husband’s instructions to former Avid directors Paulus Kapia and Otniel Podewiltz, to National Youth Council Acting Secretary-General Ralph Blaauw, who is the husband of another of the company’s directors, and possibly also to another director, retired Namibia Defence Force Brigadier Mathias Shiweda.She is set to continue with her testimony today, her lawyer, Lucius Murorua, told The Namibian yesterday.Her husband, whose testimony would probably be the inquiry’s most eagerly awaited yet, will, however, not make an appearance at the High Court just yet, Murorua also indicated.He said he had met Kandara in South Africa over the weekend, and Kandara, who has claimed that he is trying to track down the SSC’s money in order to return it, again assured him that he intends to return to Namibia.”He will come.That’s what he told me, and I believe him,” Murorua remarked.The earliest that Kandara would be able to be back in Namibia is tomorrow, the lawyer added.According to Murorua, he and Kandara also met Alan Rosenberg – the financial trader into whose bank account N$20 million of the SSC’s money was transferred two days after the SSC had transferred the N$30 million to Avid’s account – and he, too, had indicated willingness to assist the enquiry.”He is also anxious to clear his own name,” the lawyer said about Rosenberg.Lawyer Sisa Namandje, who is representing Kapia, the Deputy Minister of Works, Transport and Communication and Secretary of the Swapo Party Youth League, during the inquiry, is set to continue cross-examining Mrs Kandara when the enquiry continues today.As already indicated in court last week, Kapia is denying Mrs Kandara’s allegations, and if need be he will still tell the court that she has not been telling the truth, Namandje said yesterday.Mrs Kandara has told the court that her husband had instructed her from Johannesburg to hand Podewiltz, Blaauw and Shiweda each N$40 000, while Blaauw also had to be given an additional N$40 000 that was meant for Kapia.She did this on a Saturday some time in February or March, just after Nico Josea, the Chief Executive Officer of Namangol Investments, had delivered some N$220 000 to N$240 000 in cash at her house, Mrs Kandara claimed.She added that around the end of April or early May, she also handed a further N$10 000 to Podewiltz, again on her husband’s instructions.Josea’s company – which has, like Avid, been provisionally liquidated because of Avid’s inability to repay the SSC’s investment – received N$29,5 million of the SSC’s money from Avid on January 28.From Namangol Investments, N$20 million was again transferred to a bank account of Rosenberg in Johannesburg on the same day.Josea may return to the witness box after Mrs Kandara had finished giving evidence, it was indicated yesterday.Josea, who was the first witness to testify when the inquiry started on July 25, indicated after he was arrested on a charge of fraud in connection with the SSC/Avid deal on July 26 that he wanted to give more evidence in the inquiry.However, he refused to give evidence last week in the absence of his Johannesburg-based lawyers.With his lawyers expected to be present when the inquiry resumes this morning, Josea might get a second chance to tell his tale later today.Kandara is the wife of Lazarus Kandara.According to the evidence so far placed before Acting Judge Heathcote, Lazarus Kandara was the person who was in control of Avid, even if his name never featured on any of the written correspondence between Avid and the SSC in connection with the money that the SSC was persuaded to invest through Avid for a four-month period from late January. The inquiry was adjourned on Wednesday last week, shortly after Mrs Kandara had made sensational claims about possible kickbacks having been given on her husband’s instructions to former Avid directors Paulus Kapia and Otniel Podewiltz, to National Youth Council Acting Secretary-General Ralph Blaauw, who is the husband of another of the company’s directors, and possibly also to another director, retired Namibia Defence Force Brigadier Mathias Shiweda.She is set to continue with her testimony today, her lawyer, Lucius Murorua, told The Namibian yesterday.Her husband, whose testimony would probably be the inquiry’s most eagerly awaited yet, will, however, not make an appearance at the High Court just yet, Murorua also indicated.He said he had met Kandara in South Africa over the weekend, and Kandara, who has claimed that he is trying to track down the SSC’s money in order to return it, again assured him that he intends to return to Namibia.”He will come.That’s what he told me, and I believe him,” Murorua remarked.The earliest that Kandara would be able to be back in Namibia is tomorrow, the lawyer added.According to Murorua, he and Kandara also met Alan Rosenberg – the financial trader into whose bank account N$20 million of the SSC’s money was transferred two days after the SSC had transferred the N$30 million to Avid’s account – and he, too, had indicated willingness to assist the enquiry.”He is also anxious to clear his own name,” the lawyer said about Rosenberg.Lawyer Sisa Namandje, who is representing Kapia, the Deputy Minister of Works, Transport and Communication and Secretary of the Swapo Party Youth League, during the inquiry, is set to continue cross-examining Mrs Kandara when the enquiry continues today.As already indicated in court last week, Kapia is denying Mrs Kandara’s allegations, and if need be he will still tell the court that she has not been telling the truth, Namandje said yesterday.Mrs Kandara has told the court that her husband had instructed her from Johannesburg to hand Podewiltz, Blaauw and Shiweda each N$40 000, while Blaauw also had to be given an additional N$40 000 that was meant for Kapia.She did this on a Saturday some time in February or March, just after Nico Josea, the Chief Executive Officer of Namangol Investments, had delivered some N$220 000 to N$240 000 in cash at her house, Mrs Kandara claimed.She added that around the end of April or early May, she also handed a further N$10 000 to Podewiltz, again on her husband’s instructions.Josea’s company – which has, like Avid, been provisionally liquidated because of Avid’s inability to repay the SSC’s investment – received N$29,5 million of the SSC’s money from Avid on January 28.From Namangol Investments, N$20 million was again transferred to a bank account of Rosenberg in Johannesburg on the same day.Josea may return to the witness box after Mrs Kandara had finished giving evidence, it was indicated yesterday.Josea, who was the first witness to testify when the inquiry started on July 25, indicated after he was arrested on a charge of fraud in connection with the SSC/Avid deal on July 26 that he wanted to give more evidence in the inquiry.However, he refused to give evidence last week in the absence of his Johannesburg-based lawyers.With his lawyers expected to be present when the inquiry resumes this morning, Josea might get a second chance to tell his tale later today.
Stay informed with The Namibian – your source for credible journalism. Get in-depth reporting and opinions for
only N$85 a month. Invest in journalism, invest in democracy –
Subscribe Now!