Kameeta flip-flops on trust fund

POVERTY eradication minister Zephania Kameeta contradicted himself about his involvement in a N$3 million community trust fund, initially claiming he does not know about it and then saying he was part of it a week later.

Kameeta, retired lawyer Peter Koep, the late Bondelswart kaptein Josef Christiaan, William Gennen McDowall and member of the Keetmanshoop Town Council Gabriel Freyer are listed as trustees of the Namura/Kharas Region-Warmbad Community Trust set-up in 2007.

understands that the trust that currently has between N$3 and 5 million in its bank account was set up to benefit the Warmbad community, most of whose residents are the Bondelswart Nama sub-tribe.

A Canadian uranium exploration company, the Xemplar Energy Corp that was involved in several uranium prospecting projects in Namibia, registered the multimillion-dollar trust in 2007.

Namura Mineral Resources, Xemplar Energy Corp’s subsidiary contributed N$2 million towards the trust. Outspoken social activist Job Amupanda claimed on his social media platform that Kameeta and his co-trustees wanted to pocket the money from the fund, which he said totalled N$5 million, which accumulated over a ten year period from the initial N$2 million. A well placed source also informed The Namibian this week that the trustees have decided to close the trust and split the money among themselves, adding that the account now has N$5 million after accumulating interest in ten years.

Last week Kameeta said he did not know that such a fund existed or that he was a signatory to the account.

“What trust? I do not remember signing for any trust fund. If my signature is on those documents then it was forged, and I should take it up with my lawyers,” said Kameeta.

However, the minister on Tuesday made a U-turn and admitted that he is indeed a signatory. “We set-up the trust to benefit the community and we [trustees] did not receive a single cent to our benefit,” he said.

He also said he was aware of an agreement signed between the government and a Canadian company some years ago to supplement social grants for the elderly members of the Warmbad community as part of the company’s corporate social responsibility.

Koep Tuesday denied that the trustees wanted to use the money to line their own pockets, saying the money was still safely in the trust account. He also said there is only about N$3million in the account.

He said the Canadian company has since ceased its business operations in Namibia but that the trust exists.

“The company wanted to claim the money in the trust, but we told them it belonged to the community,” he said.

Koep added that the trust used to pay N$150 to pensioners every month for two years before stopping payments. Since then, an amount of N$3 million was left in the account.

“We want to change the trust deed and are still filing the court documents for this,” he said.

Koep, who said the trust was his idea, explained that the reason the N$3 million was not paid out to the intended beneficiaries was that they wanted to invest into something tangible with long-term benefits for the community before dissolving the trust.

Another trustee, Gabriel Freyer, on Monday told that he had not heard anything about the trust since no meetings had taken place after its launch in 2007. Freyer refuted allegations that trustees had plans to corruptly use the money for their benefit, branding the claims as “totally false”.

According to Freyer, he was equally in the dark on how the donation to the trust had been utilised apart from the N$150 monthly payments to the elderly Warmbad residents. He further said that except for Koep, none of the other trustees had signatory powers.

Warmbad senior citizen, Andries Louw, last week confirmed that he had benefited from the monthly N$150 payment, which had been paid from the trust to almost 70 pensioners at the settlement. He said pensioners had received the payments for almost a year before it was suspended when Namura Mineral Resources halted its exploration operations.

Another Warmbad resident, who refused to be named, claims the payments were stopped when some people suggested it was unfair for Bondelswart pensioners living outside the settlement not to benefit from the trust.

“The argument was that they too must benefit irrespective of where they lived,” he added.

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