Kavango oil driller paid Katti as ‘media consultant’

RECONAFRICA, a Canadian oil company that is drilling for oil in Kavango East has allegedly paid middleman Knowledge Katti as a “media consultant”.

These details are contained in a news report published by Canadian newspaper which investigated how ReconAfrica company’s leaders forged relationships with the Namibian government and Katti.

“ReconAfrica has confirmed that last year it retained the services of a controversial Namibian businessman, Knowledge Katti,who has been the frequent subject of local media reports for his close links to senior Namibian officials, including president Hage Geingob,” reported.

According to the article, ReconAfrica’s chairman, Jay Park, initially told that their company had no involvement with Katti.

“But a company spokesperson later said Katti was ‘briefly engaged as a media relations consultant for ReconAfrica in Namibia, starting in October 2020’ and no longer has any business relationship with the company,” the article said.

Katti’s ties to ReconAfrica have been a subject of whispers in the oil exploration industry. However, the latest link puts into question what Katti’s exact role in the Kavango East exploration saga was.

ReconAfrica’s communications and stakeholder relations officer, Mwanyengwa Ndapewoshali Shapwanale, said yesterday that Katti approached the company offering advisory services.

“We as a company saw it fit to acquire the short-term services as we believed that Katti would add value to our understanding of the media landscape, seeing that he is from the country,” she said.

Shapwanale said in October 2020, ReconAfrica was in the early stages of the physical work on the project when there were negative reports about it in the media.

At the same time, ReconAfrica company representatives were unable to be on the ground in Namibia and establish its own relationships with local and regional media.

The media has over the years reported on how Katti profited from the perception that Namibia has oil deposits. Katti, a globe-trotting businessman, was accused by his former South African business partners of making off with more than N$60 million they believe should have been shared among them from oil exploration deals.

reported in 2017 about emails sent by Katti which revealed how he boasted of his ability to use political connections to “do the magic” with government officials.

The emails showed that Katti used the help of state officials to legitimise his plans to make a quick buck from the sale of the oil blocks. He met some state officials at night, and promised to use political influence to apparently keep his insiders in key government positions.

Katti claimed in emails that one of his “insiders” was former petroleum commissioner Immanuel Mulunga, now the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (Namcor) managing director.

As commissioner, he was responsible for regulating Namibia’s oil industry and penalising oil companies which failed to pay their licence fees. Namcor is now a ReconAfrica partner for the Kavango East oil exploration.

Katti’s close relationship with Geingob has followed him for years. But in the past few years, he has focused on phosphate mining, a project he partnered with Omani billionaire Mohammed Al-Barwani.

Geingob was accused of pushing for that project in the past.

Institute for Public Policy Research executive director Graham Hopwood is quoted in article saying: “It’s a matter of great concern if someone with close links to the president is also connected to a company that is involved in highly controversial and potentially damaging extractive activities.

“We need Namibian institutions to remain scrupulously independent as the activities and plans of Recon­Africa are monitored and assessed,” Hopwood said.

“The allocation of petroleum exploration licences in Namibia has been mired in controversy for years with very little transparency about who is benefiting. The granting of such licences needs to be opened up to public scrutiny and the involvement of politically connected persons ruled out.”

also touched on how ReconAfrica’s board chairperson, Jay Park, was linked to controversial dealings in Africa.

According to the article, a United Nations report found that Park had been involved in an incident in 2011 in which his team of lawyers helped transfer a US$2 million payment from Calgary-based Griffiths Energy International Inc. to a company owned by the wife of the ambassador of Chad where Griffiths was seeking oil and gas rights.

The payment led to a bribery investigation by the Canadian police, and Griffiths agreed to pay a fine of more than US$10 million.

Park denied any wrongdoing.

Presidential spokesperson Alfredo Hengari yesterday said Geingob’s interactions with business people have always been above board and within the framework of promoting economic growth and employment creation.

“It is utterly malicious and gratuitous to mention the name of president Geingob in the context of ReconAfrica and its exploration activities in Namibia, simply because of the fact that president Geingob knows Knowledge Katti, who the president has known from the time that he was an ordinary member of parliament,” Hengari added.

The company is also facing a lawsuit from some community members in the exploration area who allege that ReconAfrica has cleared land for drilling without properly consulting or compensating local people. ReconAfrica also faced allegations that it was misleading investors.

Its main shareholder and founder is Craig Steinke, an exploration businessman who is likely to win big – whether oil is found in Kavango East or not.

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