A shareholder of a company that was lined up for a solar power plant partnership with the Namibia Power Corporation (NamPower) is claiming his company was swindled out of an electricity supply agreement with the national power utility.
Instead of his company, Erongo Diagram Investments (EDI), taking part in a solar power plant project NamPower was implementing in 2015, companies with political connections and ties to a senior NamPower employee were chosen to be part of the project, EDI shareholder and director Pangwa Gabriel says.
Gabriel made this claim while testifying in the Windhoek High Court last week.
“We were not part of the team that signed the PPAs,” Gabriel said, referring to power purchase agreements (PPAs) that were signed with NamPower.
“We were swindled out. We were pushed out,” he added.
Gabriel was testifying before judge Thomas Masuku in support of a claim EDI has filed against NamPower.
EDI is asking the court to declare that the company and NamPower entered into a binding and enforceable agreement in November 2015, and to order NamPower to pay damages to EDI that the company claims to have suffered because the alleged agreement was not implemented.
According to an expert witness commissioned by EDI, the company suffered a loss of N$54.4 million, made up of N$46.1 million in lost profits and N$8.1 million in costs incurred by EDI.
However, an expert witness engaged by NamPower has calculated that EDI suffered no financial losses as a result of the non-implementation of the agreement that EDI alleges was concluded.
The expert calculated that EDI would in the most likely scenario have had a negative return of N$6.2 million on its investment in a solar power plant to supply electricity to NamPower.
Reports by both expert witnesses have been filed at the court.
EDI is claiming that it and NamPower entered into a written agreement in November 2015, and that in terms of the agreement EDI would connect a five megawatt solar power plant to NamPower’s Omaere substation about 50km east of Gobabis to supply electricity to NamPower for a period of 25 years.
According to EDI, NamPower agreed it would enter into a transmission connection agreement with EDI.
The company is also claiming that NamPower chose 14 qualifying independent power producers on a first-come first-served basis to take part in its Renewable Energy Feed-in Tariff (Refit) programme, which entailed the addition of 70MW of electricity generation capacity from renewable sources to Namibia’s national electricity grid.
EDI was not one of the 14 qualifying power producers chosen to take part in the Refit programme.
EDI is claiming all but one of the 14 independent power producers chosen to take part in the Refit programme should have been disqualified, and that EDI should have been chosen as one of the first 14 power producers that qualified for the project.
In a plea filed at the court, NamPower says 14 other independent power producers beat EDI to the post by submitting the required documents for inclusion in the programme before EDI did.
The 14 successful power producers submitted their documents to NamPower through an internet portal in July 2025. EDI submitted its documents in November 2015.
Gabriel told the court last week that EDI was not aware the computer portal was active as early as July 2015 already. The only people who could have informed interested companies that the portal was open and active were people working for NamPower, he remarked.
Gabriel also claimed the 14 power producers chosen to take part in the Refit project included companies with politically connected shareholders and shareholders with links to a senior NamPower employee.
‘BINDING AGREEMENT’
“I’ve signed a binding agreement,” he said about an offer letter NamPower sent to EDI in November 2015.
In the letter, it was stated that NamPower and EDI would enter into a transmission connection agreement after the company accepted the offer from NamPower, and that the transmission connection agreement would only become effective following the execution of a power purchase agreement between NamPower and EDI.
In a witness statement filed at the court, NamPower executive Kandali Iyambo says the qualifying independent power producers for the Refit programme were chosen by the Electricity Control Board (ECB) and not NamPower.
Because of the role the ECB played in the Refit project, EDI should have cited the ECB, as well as a defendant in its case against NamPower, Iyambo says.
She also says there were no grounds for disqualifying the 14 independent power producers that were the first to submit the required documents on the NamPower portal.
NamPower’s offer letter to EDI was, in layman’s terms, a “quotation”, and by accepting the offer letter EDI did not enter into a binding agreement with NamPower, according to Iyambo.
The court proceedings before Masuku were postponed on Friday, with a date for the continuation of the trial still to be decided.
In an age of information overload, Sunrise is The Namibian’s morning briefing, delivered at 6h00 from Monday to Friday. It offers a curated rundown of the most important stories from the past 24 hours – occasionally with a light, witty touch. It’s an essential way to stay informed. Subscribe and join our newsletter community.
The Namibian uses AI tools to assist with improved quality, accuracy and efficiency, while maintaining editorial oversight and journalistic integrity.
Stay informed with The Namibian – your source for credible journalism. Get in-depth reporting and opinions for
only N$85 a month. Invest in journalism, invest in democracy –
Subscribe Now!
