Ex-Finance official wants N$750 000 in libel case

‘THIS destroyed me as a person.’
Hans Haraseb, a former senior official in the Ministry of Finance who was dismissed from the public service in late 2006 after being found guilty on several charges of misconduct, testified before Judge Sylvester Mainga in the High Court in Windhoek yesterday that this was the effect that six articles published in The Namibian between March 2005 and June 2006 had on him.

Haraseb is suing freelance journalist John Grobler, the author of the articles, The Namibian’s Editor, Gwen Lister, and the company owning the newspaper, Free Press of Namibia, for N$750 000. He claims that the six articles in which he was mentioned amongst other things created an impression of him being: •’Corrupt’,•’dishonest’,•’without moral fibre’,•’guilty of criminal conduct’ as a civil servant, and•’not a law-abiding citizen’.The first of the articles that Haraseb claims were defamatory and portrayed him as being ‘corrupt’, ‘dishonest’, and ‘without moral fibre’, was published on March 1 2005 under the headline ‘Millions in tax ‘lost’ – Key Govt official in the spotlight’.It took just short of three years for Haraseb to take legal action in connection with that article.Haraseb was in the first stage of being cross-examined by senior counsel Dave Smuts, who is representing Grobler, Lister and the newspaper company, when Smuts told him that he had a problem with Haraseb’s claim about the serious negative effects that he said especially the first article had on him.That problem is that it took Haraseb nearly three years to take legal action, Smuts said. He pointed out that the summons in which Haraseb sued Grobler, Lister and the company for alleged defamation, was issued on February 27 last year – only three days before his claim over the article of March 1 2005 would have lapsed.Haraseb responded that the matter had been in the hands of his lawyers at that stage, and how they then handled it was none of his business.Smuts also pointed out that in the almost three years since that first article was published, Haraseb never contacted either Grobler or the newspaper to complain about what he claims were false statements in the story, and also did not get his lawyers to contact the newspaper to complain or demand a retraction.’Why should I belittle myself, to call on him?’ Haraseb responded about the fact that he did not contact Grobler.During the time that the stories were published, Haraseb was suspended from his post in the Ministry of Finance, where he was a Deputy Director and was in charge of the Inland Revenue Office at Oshakati.Haraseb’s suspension ended in early November 2006, when he was informed that the Prime Minister had dismissed his appeal against the findings of a disciplinary committee that recommended that he should be discharged from the Public Service.He is challenging his dismissal in the District Labour Court, Haraseb told the court. ‘It’s unfair and a witch-hunt sort of an exercise against me,’ he claimed.Haraseb faced eight main charges of misconduct at a disciplinary hearing that took place in his absence. These included charges that he had completed and submitted late tax returns on behalf of his wife in order to help her avoid paying penalties for the late filing of the returns, and two charges that he had authorised Value-Added Tax refunds totalling N$168 132 to be paid to Gan Gan Enterprises CC, a close corporation in which Haraseb’s wife had an interest, when it was not entitled to receive such refunds.The matter of the VAT refunds is something that his wife and her bookkeeper, instead of him, would have to answer to, Haraseb said.Haraseb was also farming while he was employed at the Ministry of Finance, having bought a farm in 1999 with a loan from the Agricultural Bank of Namibia, he told Judge Mainga.He denied, though, that he had also bought a farm south of Otjiwarongo under the name of his cousin, George Gariseb, in 2002. That had been stated in the first story that Haraseb is suing about. Gariseb also denied this in testimony given on Monday and yesterday.Haraseb and Gariseb admitted, though, that Haraseb got an Agribank loan under his own name to help Gariseb buy a Toyota bakkie for his farm. Under cross-examination from Smuts, Haraseb agreed that this had been a simulated transaction in which the bank supposedly lent money to Haraseb for a purchase that was in fact made by Gariseb, who was not considered creditworthy by the bank at that stage.According to African culture they were just helping each other, Haraseb maintained. He said the bank was aware of this arrangement, and did not have any problem with it.The trial continues.Haraseb is represented by Phillip Barnard, on instructions from Metcalfe Legal Practitioners.