THE Government Institutions Pension Fund wrote off N$22 million in loans to two companies, only a year after they had been given.
These loans are part of the N$386 million capital that the GIPF failed to recover from 12 companies funded under the Development Capital Portfolio (DCP) between 1995 and 2005.
Under this portfolio, the GIPF gave out more than N$660 million to business projects, most of which are believed to have failed because of reckless spending, economic difficulties as well as poor governance.
Of this investment, N$528 million was invested in 12 companies which have now been either sold or liquidated.
Most companies which benefited from this investment are said to be linked to retired politicians, prominent business people, senior legal advisers and Cabinet ministers.
The DCP was started with the intention of providing development capital to Namibian businesses with growth potential and a development impact.
GIPF’s chief executive officer, David Nuyoma, at a media briefing yesterday said on the capital invested in 12 companies, N$142 million was recovered and N$386 million was lost.
Nuyoma said the fund since received N$1,1 billion in the form of dividends, interest and capital repayments from this investment.
Of the N$1,1 billion, N$977 million was received from nine healthy investments including Bank Windhoek, First National Bank and Etosha Fisheries that were only given N$132,6 million in total.
“We have recovered the invested capital, although we have exited from the 12 companies that failed to perform in a responsible way under the circumstances prevailing at that time,” Nuyoma said.
Part of the lost money include N$22 million awarded to two companies in 2002 and written off a year after they were awarded.
The entities which got part of the N$22 million include a company called Omina Investments that secured a N$12 million loan in 2002.
reported in 2005 that Omina Investment was previously owned by the late businessman Aaron Mushimba, a brother-in-law of founding president Sam Nujoma.
GIPF wrote off the N$12 million loan in 2003 without getting any returns.
Another company called Sepiolite Production – then owned by businessmen David Imbili, Sackey Aipinge and Harrison Marenga – got a loan of N$10 million in 2002, and it was written off the following year.
Iimbili is Nujoma’s son-in-law. Sepiolite Production, according to Nuyoma, wanted to buy a third of the shares in a company called Afhold Limited.
Another company, Tsogang Investment, which was later renamed !Uri !Khubis Abattoir, was awarded a N$5 million loan in 2000. Tsogang, according to GIPF, wanted to buy 12% shares in !Uri !Khubis Abattoir (Pty) Ltd. The company did not pay back anything, and the loan was written off in 2003.
High Court judge Shafimana Ueitele and a certain Anna Mokgatle, an employee at Namfisa, were linked to Tsogang – which was only registered in early 2000.
Nuyoma said GIPF wrote off the loan because the !Uri !Khubis Abattoir failed, and the company was placed under liquidation by Agribank.
GIPF said the loan structure to !Uri !Khubis Abattoir was not properly thought out, and was in contravention of section 38 of the Companies Act which prohibits a company from financing the acquisition with its own shares.
Some loans, Nuyoma said, were also awarded without any security. Therefore, the fund was unable to take any action against these companies “as a consequence of their default”.
reported late last month that prosecutor general Martha Imalwa said millions of dollars supposedly invested by the fund could not be traced and prosecutions could not be carried out on some of the cases because of lost documents, forgetful witnesses, and a lack of evidence.
It was not clear what documents were lost, and what they relate to.
Responding to this, Nuyoma said his office has all documents regarding the DCP investments.
“I have no idea what she was referring to, but we have all the documents. Like I said, we engaged the police, and we gave them all the documents they needed. They did not come back to us to request additional information,” he stressed.
*This article has been updated.
