Charge against Mbok withdrawn

A THEFT charge that has been pending against would-be property developer Antoine Mbok since October 2007 was withdrawn in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court on Friday.

Mbok was arrested on a charge of fraud, alternatively theft, early in October 2007. It was reported at the time that the charge on which he had been arrested was linked to the alleged sale of a house without the owner’s consent.By April 4 last year, the charge was changed to a count of theft only. Mbok pleaded not guilty to that charge and his case was postponed for a decision to be taken by the Prosecutor General on the further course of the prosecution he was facing.Since then, Mbok has had to return to the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court repeatedly, with the court being informed each time that the Prosecutor General’s decision was not yet available.Mbok made his fourth court appearance following his plea on Friday. Again the prosecution, represented by Public Prosecutor Meriam Kenaruzo, told Magistrate Elsie Schickerling that the decision of the Prosecutor General was not yet available. Kenaruzo asked the court to again postpone the case, so that the Prosecutor General could make a decision on the matter.The Magistrate would have none of this, though. She pointed out that Mbok had pleaded to the charge in April last year already. It was not acceptable to the court to be told that ten months after the plea had been given a decision by the Prosecutor General was still not available, she said.After the Magistrate had given the prosecution an adjournment, the Prosecutor returned to court to tell the Magistrate that she had been informed that the case had been sent for a decision to be made by the Prosecutor General, but that no decision had been taken yet. As a result, Kenaruzo asked that the charge against Mbok be withdrawn provisionally.In the charge to which he pleaded last year, it was alleged that Mbok had stolen N$60 600 from one Joseph Ileka Shikwanju during March 2006.At the time of his arrest, Mbok was also under fire over a low-cost housing project that a company owned by him, Dignity Housing Initiative, had launched in Windhoek the previous year. The project did not come to fruition, though, and some residents of Katutura claimed they had lost money that they had paid to Mbok after he allegedly promised them houses worth between N$50 000 and N$65 000 if they paid a deposit of N$5 000 and an administrative fee of N$250 to secure their participation in the planned project. Mbok was free on bail of N$5 000 while the charge against him was pending. The court ordered on Friday that this money had to be refunded to him.werner@namibian.com.na