Avid-SSC inquiry will go on without Kandara

THE death of Lazarus Kandara will not stop the High Court inquiry into the Social Security Commission’s doomed investment of N$30 million with Kandara’s Avid Investment Corporation.

The inquiry will proceed as scheduled on September 7, despite Kandara’s alleged suicide in Windhoek on Wednesday evening, lawyer Andrew Corbett, who is representing the SSC and the provisional liquidator who has taken over the reins at Avid, told The Namibian on Thursday. Kandara was supposed to continue giving evidence under cross-questioning when the inquiry before Acting Judge Raymond Heathcote resumes on Wednesday next week.His death will have an effect on the inquiry, but it will not bring it to a halt, Corbett said.He explained that Kandara’s death meant that the legal representatives of former and current directors of Avid will now be denied an opportunity to challenge Kandara on the evidence that he gave during his two days at the witness stand.Part of this evidence was about large cash payments that Kandara said he made to former Avid directors Paulus Kapia, Otniel Podewiltz and Mathias Shiweda, as well as to Acting National Youth Council Secretary General Ralph Blaauw, who is the husband of another director.Kandara had told the court that he gave Kapia, Shiweda and Podewiltz N$40 000 each through his wife, while Blaauw received a total of N$80 000 from him.He claimed that this money was not connected to the SSC’s N$30 million investment, but emanated from the company’s earnings on a N$10 million investment that the Navachab gold mine had placed through Avid – even though the cash amounts were paid to the recipients in the weeks after the SSC deal had been clinched.In evidence that he gave in the inquiry, Podewiltz has denied receiving kickbacks from the SSC investment transaction.Kapia’s lawyer also indicated to the court that he was likewise denying having received money from Kandara.Blaauw’s and Shiweda’s lawyers have not yet had an opportunity to challenge these claims directly with the person who was making them – and now will not get that chance.That opportunity to get more information from Kandara may be lost, but according to Corbett, most issues connected to Avid’s provisional liquidator’s efforts to recover the company’s assets – and by extension the SSC’s N$30 million -had already been dealt with when the court adjourned early on Wednesday evening.It is expected that when the inquiry continues next week, Nico Josea, the Chief Executive Officer of asset management company Namangol Investments, through which Avid channelled N$29,5 million of the SSC’s money for supposed investment in South Africa, may give further evidence.Blaauw and Shiweda, too, are expected to give evidence then.In the meantime, judicial steps aimed at tracking down the SSC’s money are set to take place in South Africa this week.Witnesses who have been subpoenaed to give evidence at an Insolvency Act inquiry related to the provisional liquidation of Avid and Namangol Investments and the provisional sequestration of Josea are supposed to attend a first stage in that inquiry in Wynberg in Cape Town tomorrow.These witnesses include Alan Rosenberg, the financial trader who received at least N$20 million of the SSC’s money from Namangol Investments, as well as Josea’s Johannesburg-based attorney, Derrick Greyling.It is expected that they will be required to hand over relevant documentation connected to the SSC/Avid/Namangol Investments transaction tomorrow, while the actual Insolvency Act inquiry is then scheduled to take place on September 26 and 27.Whereas the High Court inquiry in Namibia has been open to the public, the inquiry in Cape Town is set to take place behind closed doors before the Master of the Cape High Court.Part of Kandara’s last testimony before his death last week was that Rosenberg was set to return some N$32 million to the SSC by Thursday afternoon – even though Rosenberg was claimed to have informed Kandara that he had returned to Josea N$15 million of the N$20 million that Josea had transferred to him to be invested.The money has not been returned, in spite of that undertaking, Kandara’s lawyer, Lucius Murorua, said yesterday.He said Rosenberg had been “very upset” by the news of Kandara’s death.Rosenberg is planning, however, to repay the N$5 million of the SSC that remained with him after N$15 million was returned to Josea by today or tomorrow, Murorua said.Kandara was supposed to continue giving evidence under cross-questioning when the inquiry before Acting Judge Raymond Heathcote resumes on Wednesday next week.His death will have an effect on the inquiry, but it will not bring it to a halt, Corbett said.He explained that Kandara’s death meant that the legal representatives of former and current directors of Avid will now be denied an opportunity to challenge Kandara on the evidence that he gave during his two days at the witness stand.Part of this evidence was about large cash payments that Kandara said he made to former Avid directors Paulus Kapia, Otniel Podewiltz and Mathias Shiweda, as well as to Acting National Youth Council Secretary General Ralph Blaauw, who is the husband of another director.Kandara had told the court that he gave Kapia, Shiweda and Podewiltz N$40 000 each through his wife, while Blaauw received a total of N$80 000 from him.He claimed that this money was not connected to the SSC’s N$30 million investment, but emanated from the company’s earnings on a N$10 million investment that the Navachab gold mine had placed through Avid – even though the cash amounts were paid to the recipients in the weeks after the SSC deal had been clinched.In evidence that he gave in the inquiry, Podewiltz has denied receiving kickbacks from the SSC investment transaction.Kapia’s lawyer also indicated to the court that he was likewise denying having received money from Kandara.Blaauw’s and Shiweda’s lawyers have not yet had an opportunity to challenge these claims directly with the person who was making them – and now will not get that chance.That opportunity to get more information from Kandara may be lost, but according to Corbett, most issues connected to Avid’s provisional liquidator’s efforts to recover the company’s assets – and by extension the SSC’s N$30 million -had already been dealt with when the court adjourned early on Wednesday evening.It is expected that when the inquiry continues next week, Nico Josea, the Chief Executive Officer of asset management company Namangol Investments, through which Avid channelled N$29,5 million of the SSC’s money for supposed investment in South Africa, may give further evidence.Blaauw and Shiweda, too, are expected to give evidence then.In the meantime, judicial steps aimed at tracking down the SSC’s money are set to take place in South Africa this week.Witnesses who have been subpoenaed to give evidence at an Insolvency Act inquiry related to the provisional liquidation of Avid and Namangol Investments and the provisional sequestration of Josea are supposed to attend a first stage in that inquiry in Wynberg in Cape Town tomorrow.These witnesses include Alan Rosenberg, the financial trader who received at least N$20 million of the SSC’s money from Namangol Investments, as well as Josea’s Johannesburg-based attorney, Derrick Greyling.It is expected that they will be required to hand over relevant documentation connected to the SSC/Avid/Namangol Investments transaction tomorrow, while the actual Insolvency Act inquiry is then scheduled to take place on September 26 and 27.Whereas the High Court inquiry in Namibia has been open to the public, the inquiry in Cape Town is set to take place behind closed doors before the Master of the Cape High Court.Part of Kandara’s last testimony before his death last week was that Rosenberg was set to return some N$32 million to the SSC by Thursday afternoon – even though Rosenberg was claimed to have informed Kandara that he had returned to Josea N$15 million of the N$20 million that Josea had transferred to him to be invested.The money has not been returned, in spite of that undertaking, Kandara’s lawyer, Lucius Murorua, said yesterday.He said Rosenberg had been “very upset” by the news of Kandara’s death.Rosenberg is planning, however, to repay the N$5 million of the SSC that remained with him after N$15 million was returned to Josea by today or tomorrow, Murorua said.