FORMER beauty queen Barbara Kahatjipara is free on bail of N$5 000 after appearing in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court on a charge of fraud yesterday.
Kahatjipara (38), who was crowned Miss Namibia in 1993, made a first court appearance yesterday morning after she was arrested on a charge emanating from a period when she was employed at the Namibian Employers’ Federation (NEF) last year.She is charged with one count of fraud. The charge is based on an allegation that she defrauded her former employer by transferring around N$57 000 from an account of the NEF to her own bank account.Kahatjipara told The Namibian yesterday that, since the case is now pending in court, she could not comment on the matter at this stage. She said, though, that she has a defence against the charge.With her appearance before Magistrate Vanessa Stanley, Public Prosecutor Hans Thourob told the court the charge against Kahatjipara involved an amount of N$57 000.Kahatjipara’s defence lawyer, Deon Bugan, told the magistrate that Kahatjipara is now unemployed and has paid N$24 000 of the N$57 000 back to the complainant in the case.The magistrate ordered that Kahatjipara could be released if she paid bail of N$5 000. The bail money was deposited yesterday.Kahatjipara was also told that she has to report at the Windhoek Police Station every Wednesday afternoon, has to surrender all her travelling documents to the Police, may not leave the district of Windhoek without informing the Police officer investigating her case, and may not interfere with the investigation of her case.The NEF has also taken civil legal action against Kahatjipara. It sued her in the High Court late last year, and when she did not defend that case the NEF obtained a default judgement against her on December 9.In its claim against Kahatjipara the NEF is alleging that during her employment with the NEF she transferred N$33 488,69 from a unit trust bank account of the organisation to her personal bank account. That was allegedly done on June 3 last year.Kahatjipara has to appear in court again on March 25.
