Kandara’s wife said to be on ‘sick leave’

THE wife of Lazarus Kandara, implicated in the missing SSC millions, Mrs Christophine N Kandara, has notified her school that she has been booked off for stress by a Cape Town doctor and will only return to work by the beginning of September, The Namibian has established.

Staff at the Van Rhyn Primary School in Windhoek West this week emphatically declined to answer questions on Mrs Kandara’s whereabouts. They cited confidentiality of personnel records.All enquiries were referred to the Ministry of Basic Education’s Khomas Regional Office, which took the same line.Staff at the Van Rhyn Primary would only confirm that Mrs Kandara said she would return for active duty by the start of the next term on September 5.”I am sorry, we can’t tell you anything, we are as much in the dark as everyone else,” Van Rhyn’s receptionist said.”We just know she is supposed to be back for work by the beginning of next term.”But it has been established that Mrs Kandara, who teaches Grade 3 pupils at Van Rhyn Primary, had taken her children from the private school they attend in Windhoek and left for South Africa, shortly before the bomb over the missing SCC millions burst over Avid and Namangol’s collective heads.Other sources, who declined to be named, said Mrs Kandara had faxed a medical certificate from a Cape Town-based doctor to the school.In the weeks preceding her taking leave from the school, Mrs Kandara “started dressing like a million dollars,” one colleague said.”The most beautiful clothes, expensive new jewellery, and a fancy new car … ” * John Grobler is a freelance journalist johngrob@iway.naThey cited confidentiality of personnel records.All enquiries were referred to the Ministry of Basic Education’s Khomas Regional Office, which took the same line.Staff at the Van Rhyn Primary would only confirm that Mrs Kandara said she would return for active duty by the start of the next term on September 5.”I am sorry, we can’t tell you anything, we are as much in the dark as everyone else,” Van Rhyn’s receptionist said.”We just know she is supposed to be back for work by the beginning of next term.”But it has been established that Mrs Kandara, who teaches Grade 3 pupils at Van Rhyn Primary, had taken her children from the private school they attend in Windhoek and left for South Africa, shortly before the bomb over the missing SCC millions burst over Avid and Namangol’s collective heads.Other sources, who declined to be named, said Mrs Kandara had faxed a medical certificate from a Cape Town-based doctor to the school.In the weeks preceding her taking leave from the school, Mrs Kandara “started dressing like a million dollars,” one colleague said.”The most beautiful clothes, expensive new jewellery, and a fancy new car … ” * John Grobler is a freelance journalist johngrob@iway.na