JUSTICE minister Sacky Shanghala says N$23 million paid by the Namibia Tourism Board in 2015 for the hosting of the Kora All Africa Music Awards in Namibia cannot be recovered and therefore should be written off as a loss.
In a statement issued on Thursday, Shanghala said the Namibia Tourism Board’s pursuit of a court case in an attempt to recover the money could also be costly.
He said at the moment such a court case was “nothing but a waste of time” and a ploy by those responsible “to save face and create the impression that effort was made yet without realisable assets in this jurisdiction to be able to actually recover the money”.
“I held the view then and still do now, that trying to recover those amounts may well cost nearly similar quantities, given the exchange rates, in legal fees on the continent of Europe,” Shanghala said.
The justice minister made these remarks in a statement in which he distanced himself from the controversial Kora deal.
The Namibia Tourism Board (NTB) paid N$23 million to Benin businessman Ernest Adjovi to organise the Kora Music Awards in Namibia.
Adjovi is a known friend of president Hage Geingob.
The Benin businessman has said in court papers that he and Geingob used to socialise and play tennis together, and that his ties to the president helped land him the NTB deal.
Geingob has since 2015 accused Adjovi of misusing his name for Adjovi’s personal benefit.
has reported that Shanghala, then Namibia’s attorney general, was among the key government players who pushed for the Kora agreement.
Shanghala denied drafting the contract between the Namibia Tourism Board and Adjovi, in terms of which “an advance payment was made to the proprietors of the said ceremony”.
He said he was not directly involved and had not directed the payment that was made in advance for the hosting of the event.
He said those accusing him of drafting the contract between the NTB and Adjovi’s company Mundial Telecom SARL were misinforming the public for political reasons “or engage in character assassinations to deflect from their human errors”.
He claimed that he only got involved at the end of the Kora negotiations once a deal had already been struck between the NTB and Adjovi.
“It is simply not true that the agreement was crafted by the attorney general. In my capacity as attorney general, I attended two meetings in respect of this matter: one at the restaurant of parliament; and one with the NTB, their lawyer and minister [Pohamba] Shifeta, in which I proclaimed, after having heard that monies were paid in advance and the show would not materialise (as it factually did not), that the money was gone, and that if I were the NTB, I would accept that and approach Treasury to report it as a loss,” he said.
He said those involved should own up to take responsibility for their own deeds.
