Namandje claims Namcor bail hearing was not handled ‘competently’

The bail hearing of six individuals charged in connection with alleged fraud and corruption at the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (Namcor) was not conducted impartially and competently, a lawyer claimed in the Windhoek High Court on Friday.

Addressing judges Eileen Rakow and Philanda Christiaan on the second day of the hearing of oral arguments on appeals against the refusal of bail to the six accused, defence lawyer Sisa Namandje remarked: “With greatest respect, I continue asking, ‘Did we actually have court in the magistrate’s court?’ A judicial tribunal, a judicial hearing. The big answer is: ‘No, we did not actually’.”

He continued: “We had one that was not impartial and one that was not competent.”
Namandje, who is representing Peter and Malakia Elindi, also said: “A judge or presiding officer must not be there to buy faces. . . . If I was in a cuca shop I would say the court we got was buying faces, with respect.”

Presiding officers must be careful with people’s rights and “must not be carried away in the sea of social media madness”, Namandje remarked as well.

In his bail ruling, delivered near the end of September last year, magistrate Linus Samunzala concluded that although there was a remote possibility that the accused would abscond or interfere with state witnesses or police investigations if released on bail, it would not be in the public interest or interest of the administration of justice for them to be granted bail.

The six accused appealing against Samunzala’s bail ruling are former Namcor managing director Imms Mulunga, businessmen Peter and Malakia, former Namcor managers Jennifer Hamukwaya and Olivia Dunaiski, and Leo Nandago.

They have been held in custody since their arrests in July last year.

The state is claiming that the accused were involved in fraud, corruption and other offences allegedly committed when the fuel company Enercon Namibia, of which Peter and Malakia were shareholders, sold filling station assets at Namibian Defence Force bases to a Namcor subsidiary, Namcor Petroleum Trading and Distribution, for N$53.2 million in July 2022.

The state is also alleging that Namcor was defrauded when Enercon and another fuel firm, the close corporation Erongo Petroleum, bought fuel products from Namcor, exceeded their credit limits with the company and failed to pay for the products they had bought.

State advocate Basson Lilungwe argued on Friday that Samunzala looked at the seriousness of the charges against the accused, took account of money that originated from Namcor and was paid into bank accounts linked to all of the accused except Mulunga, and correctly concluded that it would not be in the public interest to grant bail to them.

On the sale of filling station assets for N$53.2 million, Lilungwe argued that Enercon not only sold a dream to the Namcor subsidiary, because it did not acquire ownership or possession of the assets, but in fact “sold a nightmare”.

The six accused did not operate in isolation, but operated like a syndicate, Lilungwe argued.
“We are saying each of them ate from the same cake,” he said.
Rakow and Christiaan postponed the delivery of their judgement on the appeals of the six accused to 27 March.

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