Kapia quits his Ministerial post

THE political career of Swapo Party Youth League Secretary Paulus Kapia has become the latest casualty of the debacle around the Social Security Commission’s investment of N$30 million through Avid Investment Corporation, a company of which Kapia had been a director.

Kapia tendered his resignation from his position as Deputy Minister of Works, Transport and Communication to President Hifikepunye Pohamba on Wednesday, the Minister of Presidential Affairs, Dr Albert Kawana, announced in a press release issued by the Office of the President on Thursday. The President had accepted the resignation, Kawana added.Kapia has served as Deputy Works Minister since March 21.His tenure of only a little over five months in that position – of which the past month had been spent on official leave of absence – makes him Namibia’s shortest-serving Deputy Minister yet.Kapia told The Namibian on Saturday that he has resigned only as Deputy Minister.He remains a Member of Parliament and also Secretary of the Swapo Party Youth League (SPYL).According to Kapia, his decision to quit was prompted by the fact that the High Court’s inquiry into the SSC’s investment deal with Avid is set to continue, while the 25 days’ leave that he had requested from the President from July 22 was coming to an end on Thursday last week, Kapia indicated.He said he had analysed his own situation and thought it inappropriate to again ask the President to grant him leave so that he could finalise his involvement in the inquiry, and the result was that he decided to resign as Deputy Minister.When asked whether he would be remaining an MP and would keep his position as SPYL Secretary, Kapia would only state that those posts involved “other procedures”, adding: “I didn’t pronounce myself on that.”He also denied having been asked to resign.”What I can assure you is I was not having any pressure on me to resign,” he said.”My conscience is clear,” he added.He repeated: “My conscience is clear.”The 37-year-old Kapia has been SPYL Secretary since 1997.He was elected to the National Assembly on the Swapo Party list in the national elections in November last year, after former President Sam Nujoma chose Kapia as one of the 10 candidates that he was nominating to be included at the top end of the ruling party’s candidate list for the National Assembly.The outspoken Kapia was regarded as a staunch Nujoma loyalist before he was rewarded with the then President’s nomination to the ruling party’s parliamentary candidate list.His political rise continued after the swearing-in of Pohamba as President, when the new President included Kapia in his list of appointees to the second tier of Cabinet positions.But then came the boomerang of the SSC-Avid investment deal, and with it Kapia’s political fortunes appear to have hit the skids.Kapia has already given evidence at the inquiry into the SSC’s investment of N$30 million with Avid at a stage when that company had not been in business for even a year yet and had handled only one investment of N$10 million before the SSC deal.He may, however, return to the witness box to give more evidence, after the Chief Executive Officer of Avid, Lazarus Kandara, told Acting Judge Raymond Heathcote last week that he had instructed his wife to give N$40 000 to Kapia on his behalf in the weeks after the SSC deal was clinched.Kandara insisted during the inquiry last week that the money came from profits that Avid made on its first investment deal of N$10 million [with the Navachab mine], and was not linked to the SSC deal.Kapia has told the court that he did not earn a single cent from Avid’s business operations.Kapia also appeared to be intent on distancing himself as much as possible from Kandara – but soon had to start backtracking during his evidence, in which he went on to acknowledge that he and Kandara had met each other earlier and had more contact with each other than he had initially told the court.As the inquiry wore on, Kapia appeared to become increasingly worn down by the events unfolding in the High Court.By Wednesday last week, when the inquiry adjourned for a fortnight, he had the look of a man labouring under a heavy load.His position in the SPYL may still be discussed officially within the next two weeks.The SPYL’s Secretary for Information, Publicity and Mobilisation, Elijah Ngurare, said on Thursday that the SPYL’s National Executive Committee would in due course – but probably within the next two weeks – have a meeting at which Kapia’s position would be on the agenda.BLAAUW STAYING PUT One of Kapia’s SPYL colleagues, National Youth Council Acting Secretary General Ralph Blaauw, has featured alongside Kapia in Kandara’s testimony during the inquiry.Kandara told the court that Blaauw had linked him up with Kapia, and that Blaauw had also suggested to him that the SPYL should be made one of the shareholders in Avid.Blaauw indicated this past weekend that he planned to remain put in his post as Acting Secretary General of the National Youth Council.His stance was that he had not been shown in the inquiry to have done anything untoward, he said.”If we’re found to have stolen, we will at least have the decency to resign,” he told The Namibian.Ngurare on Thursday again disputed that the SPYL was a shareholder of Avid.Individuals might have used the SPYL’s name “for whatever purpose”, but the fact remained that the organisation did not have any shares in Avid, he maintained.The President had accepted the resignation, Kawana added.Kapia has served as Deputy Works Minister since March 21.His tenure of only a little over five months in that position – of which the past month had been spent on official leave of absence – makes him Namibia’s shortest-serving Deputy Minister yet. Kapia told The Namibian on Saturday that he has resigned only as Deputy Minister.He remains a Member of Parliament and also Secretary of the Swapo Party Youth League (SPYL).According to Kapia, his decision to quit was prompted by the fact that the High Court’s inquiry into the SSC’s investment deal with Avid is set to continue, while the 25 days’ leave that he had requested from the President from July 22 was coming to an end on Thursday last week, Kapia indicated.He said he had analysed his own situation and thought it inappropriate to again ask the President to grant him leave so that he could finalise his involvement in the inquiry, and the result was that he decided to resign as Deputy Minister.When asked whether he would be remaining an MP and would keep his position as SPYL Secretary, Kapia would only state that those posts involved “other procedures”, adding: “I didn’t pronounce myself on that.”He also denied having been asked to resign.”What I can assure you is I was not having any pressure on me to resign,” he said.”My conscience is clear,” he added.He repeated: “My conscience is clear.”The 37-year-old Kapia has been SPYL Secretary since 1997.He was elected to the National Assembly on the Swapo Party list in the national elections in November last year, after former President Sam Nujoma chose Kapia as one of the 10 candidates that he was nominating to be included at the top end of the ruling party’s candidate list for the National Assembly.The outspoken Kapia was regarded as a staunch Nujoma loyalist before he was rewarded with the then President’s nomination to the ruling party’s parliamentary candidate list.His political rise continued after the swearing-in of Pohamba as President, when the new President included Kapia in his list of appointees to the second tier of Cabinet positions.But then came the boomerang of the SSC-Avid investment deal, and with it Kapia’s political fortunes appear to have hit the skids.Kapia has already given evidence at the inquiry into the SSC’s investment of N$30 million with Avid at a stage when that company had not been in business for even a year yet and had handled only one investment of N$10 million before the SSC deal.He may, however, return to the witness box to give more evidence, after the Chief Executive Officer of Avid, Lazarus Kandara, told Acting Judge Raymond Heathcote last week that he had instructed his wife to give N$40 000 to Kapia on his behalf in the weeks after the SSC deal was clinched.Kandara insisted during the inquiry last week that the money came from profits that Avid made on its first investment deal of N$10 million [with the Navachab mine], and was not linked to the SSC deal.Kapia has told the court that he did not earn a single cent from Avid’s business operations.Kapia also appeared to be intent on distancing himself as much as possible from Kandara – but soon had to start backtracking during his evidence, in which he went on to acknowledge that he and Kandara had met each other earlier and had more contact with each other than he had initially told the court.As the inquiry wore on, Kapia appeared to become increasingly worn down by the events unfolding in the High Court.By Wednesday last week, when the inquiry adjourned for a fortnight, he had the look of a man labouring under a heavy load.His position in the SPYL may still be discussed officially within the next two weeks.The SPYL’s Secretary for Information, Publicity and Mobilisation, Elijah Ngurare, said on Thursday that the SPYL’s National Executive Committee would in due course – but probably within the next two weeks – have a meeting at which Kapia’s position would be on the agenda.BLAAUW STAYING PUT One of Kapia’s SPYL colleagues, National Youth Council Acting Secretary General Ralph Blaauw, has featured alongside Kapia in Kandara’s testimony during the inquiry.Kandara told the court that Blaauw had linked him up with Kapia, and that Blaauw had also suggested to him that the SPYL should be made one of the shareholders in Avid.Blaauw indicated this past weekend that he planned to remain put in his post as Acting Secretary General of the National Youth Council.His stance was that he had not been shown in the inquiry to have done anything untoward, he said.”If we’re found to have stolen, we will at least have the decency to resign,” he told The Namibian.Ngurare on Thursday again disputed that the SPYL was a shareholder of Avid.Individuals might have used the SPYL’s name “for whatever purpose”, but the fact remained that the organisation did not have any shares in Avid, he maintained.