Avid-SSC plot thickens

THE wife of Avid Investment Corporation kingpin Lazarus Kandara, Christophine Kandara, yesterday dropped a second bombshell at the High Court’s inquiry into a disastrous N$30 million investment by the Social Security Commission with Avid, by claiming that attempts had been made last week to persuade her not to give evidence at the inquiry.

Mrs Kandara told Acting Judge Raymond Heathcote that Labour Ministry official Otniel Podewiltz – a former director of Avid Investment Corporation, a company that was run by Lazarus Kandara and through which the SSC invested the N$30 million – made two attempts last week to stop her from giving evidence in the inquiry. Neither of the attempts succeeded, and on Wednesday afternoon last week, Mrs Kandara provided the inquiry with oral evidence that indicates that her husband and a business associate, Nico Josea, may have paid possible kickbacks to three former or still serving directors of Avid, as well as to the husband of another director.Under cross-examination yesterday, Mrs Kandara refused to budge from what she had told the court last week.She insisted that over a weekend in February or March – she said she could not remember the exact date – Josea delivered between N$220 000 and N$240 000 to her house, and that she thereafter paid out most of this money in batches of N$40 000 each to Podewiltz, to National Youth Council Acting Secretary-General Ralph Blaauw, whose wife is a director of Avid, and to a certain Shiweda, who may have been another Avid director, retired Namibia Defence Force Brigadier Mathias Shiweda.In addition, she gave Blaauw an extra N$40 000, which he was supposed to deliver to a certain Kapia, she said.That Kapia may have been another now former director of Avid, Swapo Party Youth League Secretary and Deputy Works Minister Paulus Kapia.She distributed the money to the men on the instructions of her husband, who was in Johannesburg at that time, Mrs Kandara had told the court.Kapia, Shiweda and Podewiltz are all disputing her claim that they had received money from her, Mrs Kandara was told yesterday.She stuck to her evidence, telling the court that she thought it a pity that she had not taken photos or a video recording of the men as they collected the money from her so that they could not now deny it.”They know they received monies from me, but now they just sit there innocently,” she exclaimed.Podewiltz and Blaauw had visited her house on a Saturday, only some five to ten minutes after Josea had dropped off the cash, she claimed.The next day, Podewiltz returned with another man, who she took to be the Shiweda that her husband had told her to also give N$40 000 to, and she then gave N$40 000 to that person in Podewiltz’s company, she related.”To tell the honest truth, I gave Mr Podewiltz the money, and it was in cash,” she repeated yesterday.When Podewiltz’s lawyer, Dirk Conradie, told her that his instructions from Podewiltz were that his client had never been to her house, either alone or with someone else, to pick up N$40 000, she answered: “I say he was there, because I am a hundred per cent sure he was there.”It was while Conradie was cross-examining her that Mrs Kandara revealed her claim that Podewiltz had tried to prevent her from testifying in the inquiry in the first place.Conradie told her that it was his instructions that Podewiltz was denying that he ever visited her house either in February or March, or on the Saturday or Sunday that she had said he had been there to collect money.”If he denies, then it is so.But will Mr Podewiltz deny that he sent two people to my house the evening before I testified?” she replied.She continued that Podewiltz had sent two men to her house to tell her that she should not testify against her husband.His instructions were that this allegation was a blatant lie, Conradie told her next.She pressed on, though, and in a later exchange with Conradie directed another question to the lawyer: “And Mr Conradie, will Mr Podewiltz also deny that on the day that I testified, during the adjournment between one and two, he phoned my husband in Johannesburg and asked that I should not testify?” Mrs Kandara first went into the witness box after the court’s midday adjournment on Wednesday last week.During the evening after she had testified, she received a phone call from her husband, who is in South Africa, and he was under the impression that she had not testified, she related.He told her that Podewiltz had phoned him over the lunch hour to ask him to tell her not to testify, she claimed.Podewiltz will deny that he called Lazarus Kandara, and he will also produce his phone records to prove this, Conradie told her next.”Mr Podewiltz, you’re a clever man,” Mrs Kandara retorted.”You won’t phone from your cellphone, because you know that will be traced.You would rather go to a phone booth or something like that to phone.”She continued: “I hope and pray that Mr Kandara will still come and confirm this.And I hope and pray that Mr Kandara will also come and testify about things that I also don’t know about.”Given the key role that Lazarus Kandara has played in the SSC/Avid investment deal, most of the people involved in the enquiry would also be hoping and praying that Kandara would still testify.Acting Judge Heathcote duly asked Mrs Kandara about her husband’s reported undertaking to still give evidence in the inquiry, and to endeavour to track down and return the SSC’s money.”He said he is making good progress,” she reported.Her husband had told her that he would return to Namibia by the end of this week, or on August 23 at the latest, she added.Just before she left the witness stand, Mrs Kandara asked to be given an opportunity to say one more thing.She stated: “If I am guilty of anything, then I am guilty just because I am married to Lazarus Kandara.”Neither of the attempts succeeded, and on Wednesday afternoon last week, Mrs Kandara provided the inquiry with oral evidence that indicates that her husband and a business associate, Nico Josea, may have paid possible kickbacks to three former or still serving directors of Avid, as well as to the husband of another director.Under cross-examination yesterday, Mrs Kandara refused to budge from what she had told the court last week.She insisted that over a weekend in February or March – she said she could not remember the exact date – Josea delivered between N$220 000 and N$240 000 to her house, and that she thereafter paid out most of this money in batches of N$40 000 each to Podewiltz, to National Youth Council Acting Secretary-General Ralph Blaauw, whose wife is a director of Avid, and to a certain Shiweda, who may have been another Avid director, retired Namibia Defence Force Brigadier Mathias Shiweda.In addition, she gave Blaauw an extra N$40 000, which he was supposed to deliver to a certain Kapia, she said.That Kapia may have been another now former director of Avid, Swapo Party Youth League Secretary and Deputy Works Minister Paulus Kapia.She distributed the money to the men on the instructions of her husband, who was in Johannesburg at that time, Mrs Kandara had told the court.Kapia, Shiweda and Podewiltz are all disputing her claim that they had received money from her, Mrs Kandara was told yesterday.She stuck to her evidence, telling the court that she thought it a pity that she had not taken photos or a video recording of the men as they collected the money from her so that they could not now deny it. “They know they received monies from me, but now they just sit there innocently,” she exclaimed.Podewiltz and Blaauw had visited her house on a Saturday, only some five to ten minutes after Josea had dropped off the cash, she claimed.The next day, Podewiltz returned with another man, who she took to be the Shiweda that her husband had told her to also give N$40 000 to, and she then gave N$40 000 to that person in Podewiltz’s company, she related.”To tell the honest truth, I gave Mr Podewiltz the money, and it was in cash,” she repeated yesterday.When Podewiltz’s lawyer, Dirk Conradie, told her that his instructions from Podewiltz were that his client had never been to her house, either alone or with someone else, to pick up N$40 000, she answered: “I say he was there, because I am a hundred per cent sure he was there.”It was while Conradie was cross-examining her that Mrs Kandara revealed her claim that Podewiltz had tried to prevent her from testifying in the inquiry in the first place.Conradie told her that it was his instructions that Podewiltz was denying that he ever visited her house either in February or March, or on the Saturday or Sunday that she had said he had been there to collect money.”If he denies, then it is so.But will Mr Podewiltz deny that he sent two people to my house the evening before I testified?” she replied.She continued that Podewiltz had sent two men to her house to tell her that she should not testify against her husband.His instructions were that this allegation was a blatant lie, Conradie told her next.She pressed on, though, and in a later exchange with Conradie directed another question to the lawyer: “And Mr Conradie, will Mr Podewiltz also deny that on the day that I testified, during the adjournment between one and two, he phoned my husband in Johannesburg and asked that I should not testify?” Mrs Kandara first went into the witness box after the court’s midday adjournment on Wednesday last week.During the evening after she had testified, she received a phone call from her husband, who is in South Africa, and he was under the impression that she had not testified, she related.He told her that Podewiltz had phoned him over the lunch hour to ask him to tell her not to testify, she claimed.Podewiltz will deny that he called Lazarus Kandara, and he will also produce his phone records to prove this, Conradie told her next.”Mr Podewiltz, you’re a clever man,” Mrs Kandara retorted.”You won’t phone from your cellphone, because you know that will be traced.You would rather go to a phone booth or something like that to phone.”She continued: “I hope and pray that Mr Kandara will still come and confirm this.And I hope and pray that Mr Kandara will also come and testify about things that I also don’t know about.”Given the key role that Lazarus Kandara has played in the SSC/Avid investment deal, most of the people involved in the enquiry would also be hoping and praying that Kandara would still testify.Acting Judge Heathcote duly asked Mrs Kandara about her husband’s reported undertaking to still give evidence in the inquiry, and to endeavour to track down and return the SSC’s money.”He said he is making good progress,” she reported.Her husband had told her that he would return to Namibia by the end of this week, or on August 23 at the latest, she added.Just before she left the witness stand, Mrs Kandara asked to be given an opportunity to say one more thing.She stated: “If I am guilty of anything, then I am guilty just because I am married to Lazarus Kandara.”