‘Lawyer’ lied about qualifications

‘LAWYER’ Daniel Tjongarero junior has been working in the legal sector for the past 13 years without an appropriate law degree.

The 32-year-old confirmed this yesterday, but described it as “a ploy to discredit me and my company”.

Tjongarero claimed to have obtained a bachelor of laws degree (LLB) from the University of South Africa in 2003, but he was in fact never awarded such qualification.

He said the degree, which he “thought had been awarded” to him, was never conferred due to some subjects which were not completed.

Tjongarero runs the company T&L Corporate Solutions.

They provide company secretarial services, as well as asset management and legal services, amongst others.

His lack of qualifications came to light after T&L Corporate Solutions signed up to do company secretarial work for the Namibia Post and Telecommunications Holdings (NPTH) in 2012.

NPTH, which is in the process of closing down, had advertised for an expression of interest for the provision of company secretarial work, and T&L was chosen.

However, during the confirmation process, the NPTH requested that Tjongarero should furnish them with his qualifications, something which he failed to do.

Instead, he wrote to the NPTH on 27 September 2013, saying that he just found out that he in fact does not have an LLB degree from the University of South Africa (Unisa). He told the NPTH that he thought the university had already given him his qualifications in 2003.

“I learnt telephonically this morning (27 September 2013) that the said qualification for credit was not considered, and as a result, the said course remained incomplete due to those outstanding courses/subjects.

“Please note this was never communicated to me, and similarly practicals were completed on the same assumptions,” he stated.

Tjongarero told acting chief executive officer of the NPTH, Christa Muller, that he first did his bachelor of laws degree at the University of Namibia (Unam) for two years, and this accreditation would have ensured that the course he took at Unisa would have been completed, thus having him conferred an LLB degree.

Tjongarero’s curriculum vitae also contradicts his claim of having started a law degree at Unam, as it states that he had instead obtained a bachelor of arts degree from Unam.

Unam said he had not done an LLB with them, but “only did a bachelor of arts for two years. He had modules that were related to law, but they were those one would need when studying media or sociology”.

In the letter, Tjongarero said his company’s appointment for the provision of company secretarial work was on merit, and not based on his qualifications.

“It is at this time (in 2013) that we started to enquire on the papers, which I thought were already forwarded to me, because my understanding was that that course had been completed due to the aforementioned subject credit applications,” he said.

The Namibian understands that the Namibia Public Workers Union (Napwu) had laid a complaint with public enterprise minister Leon Jooste on the matter.

Although the union’s general secretary Peter Nevonga declined to comment, The Namibian understands that the union complained to Jooste that NPTH board chair Ally Angula protects Tjongarero.

Angula yesterday branded these allegations as personal attacks aimed at discrediting a valuable member of the NPTH team.

She confirmed that Tjongarero’s company is still carrying out its duty of providing company secretarial services to the NPTH.

Defending T&L, Angula said the company is merely represented by Tjongarero.

“So, questions around qualifications should be whether the company is capable of rendering services. This company has been rendering this service since 2012, and were appointed after an open tender was run,” she stressed.

Jooste declined to comment on the matter, saying the NPTH and its subsidiaries will only be transferred formally to his ministry after the Post and Telecommunications Companies Establishment Act of 1992 had been amended.

“This will only happen when parliament resumes in September. Until then, the status quo remains,” he said.

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