Covid delays MultiChoice fraud trial

THE trial of a former employee of television company MultiChoice Namibia has hit a snag due to Covid-19, before any testimony in the matter could be heard.

Judge Herman January yesterday postponed the trial of Manga Nawa-Mukena (41), her husband, Joseph Mukena (47), and a third accused, Celestino Gabriel Antonio (40), in the Windhoek High Court to 27 September, after he had been told that Antonio had to be tested for the novel coronavirus because he had been in contact with someone who got ill with Covid-19.

The trial of the three accused started on 14 June, when they denied guilt on charges linked to allegations that Nawa-Mukena defrauded MultiChoice of about N$2 million between April 2013 and March 2017, while employed by the company.

MultiChoice Namibia’s managing director, Roger Gertze, was set to be the state’s first witness in the trial, but his testimony has not begun yet – initially after defence lawyer Slysken Makando, who is representing Nawa-Mukena and her husband, had to be tested for the novel coronavirus because he had been in contact with someone infected with the virus, and now because of Antonio’s absence from court for a similar reason.

The state is alleging that Nawa-Mukena used her position as marketing manager at MultiChoice Namibia to carry out a fraudulent scheme in which she created falsified invoices reflecting the name of the weekly newspaper Kundana, which was published by New Era Publication Corporation, purporting to be for advertisements placed in the newspaper, and presented the invoices to MultiChoice for payment.

On the allegedly falsified invoices, Nawa-Mukena’s own bank account number was provided for payments to be made to it.

The state is claiming that from April 2014 to March 2017, MultiChoice paid a total amount of about N$2,08 million into Nawa-Mukena’s bank account as a result of the falsified invoices.

It is further claimed that after Nawa-Mukena had been arrested, she and her husband tried to mislead MultiChoice by getting Antonio to misrepresent to the company that he had an unregistered company named KundanaNam, which had delivered marketing services to MultiChoice.

The charges which Nawa-Mukena is facing include 85 counts of fraud and 85 counts of forgery and uttering a forged document.

The charges against her husband include 85 counts of theft.

In a plea statement given to the judge after she denied guilt on all charges, Nawa-Mukena confirmed that her bank account number appeared on invoices which she said Antonio submitted to MultiChoice, but denied that this was fraudulent and stated she had provided her bank account to Antonio to assist him.

She also claimed Gertze and the financial manager of MultiChoice would have known the account number on the invoices was hers.

She said Gertze himself signed an agreement with KundanaNam for it to provide services to MultiChoice, and indicated that she disputed allegations or innuendos that she had forged his signature.

In addition, Nawa-Mukena said there was a robust payment process with multiple control points in place at MultiChoice, with each payment by the company requiring verification at five points.

“I could not have bypassed this entire process,” she stated.

She also said: “I vehemently state that I did not carry out the fraud as alleged by the state against MultiChoice Namibia, and consequently, I did not pay for any assets owned by myself, my husband or jointly owned by us, with monies from fraudulent activity.”

Nawa-Mukena and Antonio are out on bail, while Mukena remains free on a warning from the court.

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