Namcor fraud accused to plead in April as court delays case

The 14 individuals charged in connection with alleged fraud and corruption at the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (Namcor) are due to be asked to plead to the charges they are facing when they make their next court appearance in April.

The accused in the matter are scheduled to appear in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court again on 21 April, after magistrate Olga Muharukua postponed their case yesterday for the taking of pleas and for further investigations to be carried out before they return to court.

Defence lawyers representing the accused objected to a postponement, which was requested by public prosecutor Basson Lilungwe. However, Muharukua said the state’s application for a postponement was not unreasonable.

Defence lawyers in the matter argued that a final postponement for further investigation of the case had been ordered in last December already.

Lilungwe informed the court yesterday that investigations are “at an advanced stage” and that 45 lever-arch files of evidence have been collected thus far. He also said the state would need a month to prepare the charges on which the accused will be asked to plead with their next court appearance. The state is claiming that the accused were involved in fraud, corruption and other offences allegedly committed when the fuel company 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.

The individuals charged in the matter are former Namcor managing director Imms Mulunga, former Namcor managers Cedric Willemse, Jennifer Hamukwaya and Olivia Dunaiski, businessmen Peter Elindi and Malakia Elindi, Lydia Elindi, Panduleni Hamukwaya, Leo Nandago, Connie van Wyk, Austin Elindi, Heidi Boois, Martha Antindi and Johanna Mundjego.

Willemse, Lydia, Van Wyk, Boois, Antindi and Mundjego have been released on bail since their arrests. The other accused are being held in custody.

Six of the accused – Mulunga, Peter, Malakia, Jennifer, Dunaiski and Nandago – have appealed against a magistrate’s decision in September last year to refuse their applications to be granted bail.

The judgement on their appeals is expected to be delivered in the Windhoek High Court next Friday.

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