Eight of the accused charged in the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (Namcor) fraud and corruption case are facing the prospect of a first year-end in jail, after their matter was postponed to March in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court yesterday.
Magistrate Esme Molefe postponed the case to 19 March, overruling objections that defence lawyers representing the accused raised against an application by the state for a postponement on Friday last week.
The state asked for a postponement for further investigations to be done.
Public prosecutor Basson Lilungwe informed the court that investigations in the matter are still being carried out, Molefe recounted in her ruling on the request for a postponement.
The court was also informed that the case being investigated is complex, that bank records linked to several of the accused need to be gathered by investigators and that the investigation also involves several ministries.
Molefe noted that the accused in the matter were arrested in July.
A bail application by seven of the accused started shortly after their arrests, and ended with six of the accused being denied bail on 26 September.
The six accused who were refused bail are former Namcor managing director Imms Mulunga, businessmen brothers Peter and Malakia Elindi, former Namcor employees Jennifer Hamukwaya and Olivia Dunaiski, and Leo Nandago.
Lydia Elindi, who is married to Malakia Elindi, and Connie van Wyk, former chief executive of the fuel company Enercon Namibia, have been released on bail in an amount of N$50 000 each.
Molefe also recounted that a second bail application, in which former Namcor manager Cedric Willemse applied to be granted bail, started in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court in September.
Willemse’s bail hearing ended on 28 October, when he was granted bail in an amount of N$200 000.
A third bail application, in which Hamukwaya’s husband, Panduleni Hamukwaya, is attempting to be granted bail, has started in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court in Katutura, and is scheduled to continue in January.
One of the other accused, Austin Elindi, has not applied to be released on bail.
Postponing the case to 19 March, Molefe extended the bail of Willemse, Van Wyk and Lydia Elindi, and directed that the other accused should remain in custody.
She added that the postponement is a final one for further investigations to be carried out.
The state is claiming that the accused were involved in fraud, corruption and other offences allegedly committed when Enercon Namibia 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.
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