Freeze of Teko trio’s assets extended

THE freezing of the assets of the three people accused of corruption around a contract for the provision of Chinese-made X-ray scanning equipment to Namibia’s customs authorities has been extended until November 20.

The court order in terms of which millions of dollars worth of assets belonging or connected to Public Service Commissioner Teckla Lameck, her business partner, Kongo Mokaxwa, and Chinese national Yang Fan have been frozen since July 6 is the first of its kind to be issued under Namibia’s Prevention of Organised Crime Act.On Friday, that provisional restraint order was extended to November 20.The order has been extended while a two-judge bench of the High Court considers whether to make the provisional order issued on July 6 a final order, or whether to discharge that interim order.Judge President Petrus Damaseb and Judge Collins Parker reserved their judgement on the issue after hearing arguments on the matter in the High Court on Monday and Tuesday last week.South African senior counsel Jeremy Gauntlett, representing Lameck, Mokaxwa and Yang, argued that the interim order should be lifted. Fellow senior counsel Jeremy Muller, representing the Prosecutor General, asked the court to confirm the provisional restraint order.The restraint order targets assets like fixed properties, cars and bank accounts.Lameck, Mokaxwa and Yang have been charged with counts of fraud, corruption and bribery in connection with a US$55,348 million contract for the provision of Chinese-made X-ray scanning equipment to the Ministry of Finance.That contract has so far already earned them a ‘commission’ of over N$42 million.Through a collection of agreements between the supplier of the Chinese X-ray equipment, Nuctech Company, and a Namibian close corporation in which Lameck and Mokaxwa are the only two members, Teko Trading CC, the close corporation was supposedly appointed as Nuc-tech’s local agent and consul-tant. That role would earn Teko Trading a total of US$12,828 million (about N$97,2 million at the current exchange rate) from Nuctech’s X-ray equipment supply contract with the Finance Ministry.The Prosecutor General is charging that the agreements between Nuctech and Teko Trading CC are a sham, tailored merely to facilitate the funnelling of a massive mount of Namibian taxpayers’ money into the pockets of Lameck, Mokaxwa and Yang while Teko Trading CC was never intended to perform any noteworthy work to earn such a generous income.Yang is Nuctech’s southern African representative. At the same time, he was also employed by Teko Trading to carry out the consulting and agency work that Nuctech supposedly agreed the close corporation would be doing for it.According to sworn disclosures of assets that Mokaxwa and Lameck’s husband, TransNamib board chairperson Festus Lameck, have made to the High Court, Mokaxwa and his wife and Lameck and his wife count various vehicles and fixed properties among their assets.Mokaxwa informed the court that he and his wife jointly own fixed properties in Gevers Street in Windhoek’s Ludwigsdorf area and in Dorado Park in Windhoek, as well as a traditional house at Olukonda in the Oshikoto Region.They also own two Mercedes-Benz cars, a Toyota Land Cruiser and a Ford Ranger bakkie.Teko Trading CC owns a fixed property at Dolphin Beach between Walvis Bay and Swakopmund and three erven at Swakopmund, of which one has been sold, Mokaxwa has declared.He and his wife also have a 100 per cent interest in a close corporation, Kongom Trading CC, and a 50 per cent interest in another close corporation, KVM Motor Trading CC, Mokaxwa has stated.Mr Lameck informed the court that his and his wife’s assets include a Mercedes-Benz car, two Toyota Land Cruisers, a Land Rover Defender, a Scania truck and several trailers.They own fixed properties in Suiderhof in Windhoek, at Ongwediva and in Klein Windhoek, a traditional house at Amilema in the Oshikoto Region, and a farm, Khusib III, while they have also bought another farm, Kainami, which has not yet been transferred into their name, Lameck stated.He has a 50 per cent interest in two close corporations, Fella Investment CC and Ekwao Bricks CC, a 35 interest in another close corporation, Northern Aggregates CC, and a 15 per cent interest in another close corporation, Luko Property Development CC, Lameck also declared.Lameck, Mokaxwa and Yang have to appear in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court again on charges of corruption, fraud and bribery on October 13.