Kamanya accuses shareholders of tryig to wrest company from her

SWAPO lawmaker Ella Ndatega Kamanya said yesterday that fellow shareholders in a black empowerment company were using the San community to take away a firm she founded and to tarnish her reputation after she became a parliamentarian.

Kamanya and two directors had been accused of failing to account for N$2,4 million that the firm, Tega Fisheries, received as dividends from Omankete Investments, a consortium of black empowerment groups that was accorded fishing rights in 2001. Kamanya, who announced earlier this week that she and her family had decided to end acrimonious infighting by relinquishing her part-ownership of the company, said N$500 000 had been paid out to shareholders in dividends.Another N$200 000 had been spent on setting up a computer lab at the school at Tsumkwe, a maize-milling project at Mangetti and an open market at Gam in the Otjozondjupa Region.”The accusation in The Namibian was that I ate the N$2 million.The fight started with my going to Parliament: since that time there was an uneasiness.This story is much larger than it appears.It involves issues of who you know, intimidation and connections,” she said.Infighting at Tega has exposed the use of fronts by people disguising their involvement in the acquisition of fishing rights.It has also highlighted troubles besetting black empowerment firms, most of which were set up as shell firms with no operations or start-up capital, but have nevertheless reaped dividends.The shareholders whom she accused of trying to push her out of the company’s affairs – Kazenambo Kazenambo, MacAlbert Hengari and Onesmus Amadhila – have dismissed that allegation.They say Kamanya and her brother-in-law Daniel Haitembu, who is also a shareholder in the company, have flouted company rules by hiding the firm’s activities from other shareholders and failed to hold annual general meetings or provide financial statements since the company’s inception.Responding to Kamanya’s allegation that they were targeting her because she was an MP, Hengari claimed: “I certainly believe, having watched her conduct, she is not fit to be a Swapo parliamentarian.She has no understanding of the basic tenets of the law…When you raise a concern, they call you in like feudal potentates and give you N$5 000.””That’s a lie,” countered Kamanya, “said with the characteristic arrogance of Hengari whom I have met only once.”According to records at the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Tega Fisheries is owned by the Tsumkwe/Gam Trust with 25 per cent share ownership, Dobe Trust (10 per cent), M Kakujaha (7 per cent), Amadhila (7 per cent), Haitembu (7 per cent), Hengari (7 percent), Veovisa Ngombe Katengua (7 per cent), Graham Duffus (10 per cent) and Dirk Theart (10 per cent).The remaining 10 per cent of the shares are held in company reserves.Amadhila, Kakujaha and Katengua have been used as fronts or proxy shareholders for Kamanya, Utoni Nujoma (the President’s son) and Kazenambo.Amadhila, the husband of Finance Minister Saara Kuugongelwa, was Kamanya’s boyfriend when she hid the shares behind his name, Kamanya said.She said Amadhila was trying to keep the shares as a way to fight another court action she brought against him in connection with ownership in a different firm.Amadhila said he would comment today.Kamanya, Haitembu, Kazenambo and Nujoma have also been accused of changing the company shareholdings.But Fisheries Minister Abraham Iyambo said yesterday that ownership could not be altered without his approval.Kamanya said the three shareholders, who she claims did the least in getting fishing rights for Atlantic Fisheries (which has since become Tega Fisheries), were now trying to remove her and her family as the company was thriving.Asked why meetings had not been held, Kamanya said: “They wanted to seize control of the company at a shareholders’ meeting.”She also accused a representative of the San community at Tsumkwe, fellow Swapo MP Royal /Ui/o/oo, of being used by Hengari and Kazenambo./Ui/o/oo wrote a letter to President Nujoma accusing Kamanya of abusing the trust of the community to gain fishing rights.Tega Fisheries is a shell company but receives dividends from Omankete Investments.Omankete is a consortium of black empowerment firms granted fishing rights by the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources together with established white-owned firms.Kazenambo, who says he has received more than N$51 000 in dividends since 2002, claims that, on the basis of the amount paid to Tega Fisheries, he was entitled to at least N$160 000.Kamanya, who announced earlier this week that she and her family had decided to end acrimonious infighting by relinquishing her part-ownership of the company, said N$500 000 had been paid out to shareholders in dividends.Another N$200 000 had been spent on setting up a computer lab at the school at Tsumkwe, a maize-milling project at Mangetti and an open market at Gam in the Otjozondjupa Region.”The accusation in The Namibian was that I ate the N$2 million.The fight started with my going to Parliament: since that time there was an uneasiness.This story is much larger than it appears.It involves issues of who you know, intimidation and connections,” she said.Infighting at Tega has exposed the use of fronts by people disguising their involvement in the acquisition of fishing rights.It has also highlighted troubles besetting black empowerment firms, most of which were set up as shell firms with no operations or start-up capital, but have nevertheless reaped dividends.The shareholders whom she accused of trying to push her out of the company’s affairs – Kazenambo Kazenambo, MacAlbert Hengari and Onesmus Amadhila – have dismissed that allegation.They say Kamanya and her brother-in-law Daniel Haitembu, who is also a shareholder in the company, have flouted company rules by hiding the firm’s activities from other shareholders and failed to hold annual general meetings or provide financial statements since the company’s inception.Responding to Kamanya’s allegation that they were targeting her because she was an MP, Hengari claimed: “I certainly believe, having watched her conduct, she is not fit to be a Swapo parliamentarian.She has no understanding of the basic tenets of the law…When you raise a concern, they call you in like feudal potentates and give you N$5 000.””That’s a lie,” countered Kamanya, “said with the characteristic arrogance of Hengari whom I have met only once.”According to records at the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Tega Fisheries is owned by the Tsumkwe/Gam Trust with 25 per cent share ownership, Dobe Trust (10 per cent), M Kakujaha (7 per cent), Amadhila (7 per cent), Haitembu (7 per cent), Hengari (7 percent), Veovisa Ngombe Katengua (7 per cent), Graham Duffus (10 per cent) and Dirk Theart (10 per cent).The remaining 10 per cent of the shares are held in company reserves.Amadhila, Kakujaha and Katengua have been used as fronts or proxy shareholders for Kamanya, Utoni Nujoma (the President’s son) and Kazenambo.Amadhila, the husband of Finance Minister Saara Kuugongelwa, was Kamanya’s boyfriend when she hid the shares behind his name, Kamanya said.She said Amadhila was trying to keep the shares as a way to fight another court action she brought against him in connection with ownership in a different firm.Amadhila said he would comment today.Kamanya, Haitembu, Kazenambo and Nujoma have also been accused of changing the company shareholdings.But Fisheries Minister Abraham Iyambo said yesterday that ownership could not be altered without his approval.Kamanya said the three shareholders, who she claims did the least in getting fishing rights for Atlantic Fisheries (which has since become Tega Fisheries), were now trying to remove her and her family as the company was thriving.Asked why meetings had not been held, Kamanya said: “They wanted to seize control of the company at a shareholders’ meeting.”She also accused a representative of the San community at Tsumkwe, fellow Swapo MP Royal /Ui/o/oo, of being used by Hengari and Kazenambo./Ui/o/oo wrote a letter to President Nujoma accusing Kamanya of abusing the trust of the community to gain fishing rights.Tega Fisheries is a shell company but receives dividends from Omankete Investments.Omankete is a consortium of black empowerment firms granted fishing rights by the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources together with established white-owned firms.Kazenambo, who says he has received more than N$51 000 in dividends since 2002, claims that, on the basis of the amount paid to Tega Fisheries, he was entitled to at least N$160 000.