Brigadier in the dock over embassy crash

A CRASH into the boundary wall of the Finnish Embassy in Windhoek in the early morning hours of Monday landed retired Namibia Defence Force Brigadier Mathias Shiweda in the dock in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court yesterday.

Shiweda (56) is charged with reckless or negligent driving and driving with an excessive breath alcohol level.He was arrested after a double cab bakkie allegedly driven by him crashed into the boundary wall of the Embassy of Finland on the corner of Bahnhof Street and Crohn Street – barely 250 metres from the Windhoek Police Station further down the road in Bahnhof Street – at about 03h15 on Monday.The part of the wall and metal fence that the bakkie crashed into were demolished in the collision. The rubble was cleared from the scene yesterday.Bahnhof Street and Crohn Street are one-way streets where they pass by the embassy. The vehicle alleged to have been driven by Shiweda appears to have gone the wrong way up the section of Bahnhof Street to the east of an intersection controlled by a set of traffic lights when it crashed into the wall.A breathalyser test was done on Shiweda after the crash, and it is alleged that the result showed that he was over the legal limit of 0,37 milligrams of alcohol per litre of breath.Shiweda was released on Police bail of N$4 000 later on Monday.Making a first court appearance before Magistrate John Sindano yesterday, his case was postponed to January 22 for further investigation.Shiweda’s bail was extended.Shiweda is also facing charges in the Avid Investment Corporation fraud case in the High Court. In that case, he and six co-accused are set to be prosecuted in connection with an investment of N$30 million that the Social Security Commission entrusted to Avid Investment Corporation, an inexperienced but politically connected asset management company in which Shiweda allegedly held shares, in early 2005. Avid was later unable to repay the invested money to the SSC.The trial of Shiweda and his co-accused in the Avid case is at this stage scheduled to start only on June 1 2011.