Businessman’s rape case to higher court

A CASE in which controversial would-be property developer Antoine (‘Tony’) Mbok faces a charge of rape was transferred to the Windhoek Regional Court on Friday.

The 33-year-old Mbok will have to make a first appearance in the Regional Court in the capital on May 18, Mbok was told when he appeared before Magistrate Sarel Jacobs in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court on Friday. Mbok was also told that the Prosecutor General has given instructions that he must be arraigned in the Regional Court on a charge of rape.Mbok has been facing a rape charge since being quietly arrested on May 26 last year.He was in custody for six days before he was granted bail of N$5 000 on June 1, the court record of his case shows.As part of his bail conditions, Mbok – a born Cameroonian who is married to a Namibian woman – had to surrender his passport to the Police, may not obtain new travel documents while the matter against him remains pending, and has to report to the Police’s Woman and Child Protection Unit in Windhoek each Sunday morning.According to the record of his case, Mbok pleaded not guilty to the charge on September 25 last year.His defence lawyer, Jan Wessels of the law firm Stern & Barnard, on that occasion told the court that Mbok would not at that stage disclose the basis of his defence.It is alleged that he had forcible sexual intercourse with a 20-year-old woman in his car in a remote part of Windhoek’s Northern Industrial Area at about 02h00 on May 21 last year.HOUSING PROJECTS Friday’s court appearance was, except for the bail application that he brought to court in late May and early June last year, the seventh that Mbok has made since his arrest.Mbok first surfaced in Namibia about two years ago as one of the key movers behind a plan to build a multi-million-dollar shopping and entertainment complex, under the name Northland City, at Helao Nafidi close to Namibia’s border with Angola.That project has in the meantime become stalled by an apparent lack of funding and infighting amongst partners involved in the plans.More recently, Mbok has faced threats that legal action would be taken against him if he did not pay back money he allegedly took from poor Katutura residents who had been persuaded to buy into a promised low-cost housing development.Just like the Northland City project, that development still has to materialise.On this score, Mbok is accused of accepting deposits of about N$5 250 each from poor Katutura residents who were told that by handing over this money to a low-cost housing project allegedly set up by Mbok, Dignity Housing Initiative, houses worth between N$50 000 and N$65 000 would eventually be built for each of them.No such houses have been built yet, but Mbok has previously told The Namibian that this project has not been abandoned – only “seriously delayed”.Mbok was also told that the Prosecutor General has given instructions that he must be arraigned in the Regional Court on a charge of rape.Mbok has been facing a rape charge since being quietly arrested on May 26 last year.He was in custody for six days before he was granted bail of N$5 000 on June 1, the court record of his case shows.As part of his bail conditions, Mbok – a born Cameroonian who is married to a Namibian woman – had to surrender his passport to the Police, may not obtain new travel documents while the matter against him remains pending, and has to report to the Police’s Woman and Child Protection Unit in Windhoek each Sunday morning.According to the record of his case, Mbok pleaded not guilty to the charge on September 25 last year.His defence lawyer, Jan Wessels of the law firm Stern & Barnard, on that occasion told the court that Mbok would not at that stage disclose the basis of his defence.It is alleged that he had forcible sexual intercourse with a 20-year-old woman in his car in a remote part of Windhoek’s Northern Industrial Area at about 02h00 on May 21 last year. HOUSING PROJECTS Friday’s court appearance was, except for the bail application that he brought to court in late May and early June last year, the seventh that Mbok has made since his arrest.Mbok first surfaced in Namibia about two years ago as one of the key movers behind a plan to build a multi-million-dollar shopping and entertainment complex, under the name Northland City, at Helao Nafidi close to Namibia’s border with Angola.That project has in the meantime become stalled by an apparent lack of funding and infighting amongst partners involved in the plans.More recently, Mbok has faced threats that legal action would be taken against him if he did not pay back money he allegedly took from poor Katutura residents who had been persuaded to buy into a promised low-cost housing development.Just like the Northland City project, that development still has to materialise.On this score, Mbok is accused of accepting deposits of about N$5 250 each from poor Katutura residents who were told that by handing over this money to a low-cost housing project allegedly set up by Mbok, Dignity Housing Initiative, houses worth between N$50 000 and N$65 000 would eventually be built for each of them.No such houses have been built yet, but Mbok has previously told The Namibian that this project has not been abandoned – only “seriously delayed”.