One of the accused in the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (Namcor) fraud and corruption case, Jennifer Hamukwaya, has filed a N$200 000 defamation claim against a newspaper owner and journalist about an incorrect online news update published on Tuesday.
Hamukwaya’s lawyer, Francois Bangamwabo, filed the defamation claim against Namibia Media Holdings, owner of Namibian Sun, and reporter Rita Kakelo in the Windhoek High Court on Wednesday.
Bangamwabo is claiming that the newspaper and Kakelo reported on the internet on Tuesday that Anti-Corruption Commission investigator Oberty Inambao testified in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court that Hamukwaya, who is a former finance executive of Namcor, took up employment at the fuel firm Erongo Petroleum CC after she left Namcor and that a romantic relationship with the close corporation’s Austin Elindi is believed to have begun at Erongo Petroleum.
In fact, Inambao gave this testimony about another accused in the Namcor case, Olivia Dunaiski, and not about Hamukwaya.
Bangamwabo is alleging that the online report published by Namibian Sun was wrongful and defamatory and was understood to mean that Hamukwaya unethically took up employment with Erongo Petroleum, a client of Namcor, that she “engaged in an improper office romance with Austin Elindi while employed at Erongo Petroleum”, and that she engaged in an adulterous relationship with Elindi.
The alleged defamatory statements “without any truth therein were undoubtedly published wrongfully and unlawfully with the sole intention to tarnish the plaintiff’s good name, reputation and human dignity and thereby lower her self-esteem in the eyes of the right-thinking members of the community in Namibia and abroad”, Bangamwabo claims.
He also alleges that the “unjustified onslaught on [Hamukwaya’s] dignity and reputation has caused the plaintiff psychological trauma, distress, stigma, shame, disgrace and dishonour”.
Hamukwaya has suffered damages in an amount of N$200 000 as a result of the publication, Bangamwabo claims.
He is asking the court to order Namibia Media Holdings and Kakelo to pay N$200 000 to Hamukwaya, retract the online post and publicly apologise to Hamukwaya.
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