A government employee convicted on a corruption charge after he offered to pay for a public demonstration in support of the men charged in the Fishrot fishing quotas fraud case has been sentenced to pay an effective fine of N$5 000 at the end of his trial in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court.
Before his sentencing on Tuesday, Sylas Mungoba (36) told magistrate Kandiwapa Nembia he accepted that he had been convicted, and that he apologised for the offence.
“I didn’t know it was wrong at the time,” Mungoba added.
In a judgement delivered in July this year, Nembia found Mungoba guilty on a charge of corruptly giving gratification and acquitted him on a count of defeating or obstructing the course of justice, or attempting to do so.
The magistrate found that Mungoba in July 2021 offered to pay Affirmative Repositioning (AR) member Paulus ‘Pau Pau’ Kathanga N$8 000 as an inducement for Kathanga to set up a social media campaign and organise demonstrations calling for the release of the men charged in connection with the Fishrot corruption scandal.
During his trial, which started in March this year, Mungoba told the court he contacted Kathanga and a then fellow AR member, Dimbulukeni Nauyoma, to discuss the difference in the treatment received by the accused in the Fishrot case, who have been denied bail and that received by British farm owner Harvey Boulter, who was eventually granted bail after his arrest on a charge of murder.
Mungoba denied that he asked Kathanga and Nauyoma to organise a demonstration in support of the Fishrot accused.
He said he, Kathanga and Nauyoma agreed they would conduct a campaign on social media to point out how the Fishrot accused, who are Namibians, were refused bail, while the British Boulter was granted bail after he was charged with murder.
Mungoba also said he gave N$7 500 to Kathanga to get their planned campaign started.
According to Kathanga, Mungoba first contacted him in 2020 about the Fishrot case, and again contacted him about the same matter in July 2021.
He said Mungoba told him the Fishrot accused had indicated that, except for an initial payment of N$10 000 to have demonstrations in support of the granting of bail to them organised, they would give N$80 000 to N$90 000 to each person mobilising such demonstrations.
Mungoba said the money would come from the Fishrot accused, and he mentioned the name of one of the accused, Tamson Hatuikulipi, in that regard, Kathanga testified.
Kathanga said in his view Mungoba was offering to bribe AR members, who had organised public demonstrations in opposition to the granting of bail to the Fishrot accused, to change their stance to one in support of bail.
The court also heard that Kathanga made recordings of conversations between him and Mungoba, and that the AR leadership decided to report the matter to the Anti-Corruption Commission after it had been briefed about Mungoba’s proposals.
Kathanga’s testimony was not challenged by Mungoba’s defence lawyer, Petrus Elago, who did not pose any questions to him in cross-examination.
Mungoba was arrested on 16 July 2021, and was held in custody for nearly four weeks before he was granted bail in an amount of N$10 000.
Nembia sentenced him to pay a fine of N$10 000 or serve a prison term of 12 months, and suspended half of the fine or jail term for a period of five years.
She also ordered that N$7 500 in cash that Mungoba paid to Kathanga is forfeited to the state.
The state was represented by public prosecutor Marchell Hoëb.
