Namdia ‘worries’ President

PRESIDENT Hage Geingob is allegedly worried by the manner in which Namib Desert Diamonds (Namdia) has started operating and that state diamonds are being sold for a song.

Namdia is a state-owned company established in August last year to sell diamonds worth about N$2 billion per year, or N$20 billion over the next 10 years.

Geingob has been accused of being too quiet on the Namdia saga. However, three senior sources in Geingob’s administration told recently that the President was not happy with how the diamond company was started. Geingob has since directed public enterprises minister Leon Jooste to investigate the parastatal.

reported in October last year that Namdia secretly started operating on 18 April 2016 and its board, appointed by mines minister Obeth Kandjoze, was never made public until this newspaper asked him for the names. Board appointments are normally announced by the line ministry or the information ministry, but it was not so in Namdia’s case. The names were only made public in October via , months after the appointments. According to a minister, who declined to be named, Geingob told Jooste around October last year to investigate Namdia.

Jooste, who was unreachable yesterday, conducted his investigation about the setting up of Namdia without informing Kandjoze.

An official familiar with the investigation said several ministers were afraid of offending each other, while certain ministers are known to be sensitive, even when dealing with national issues. Legally, Jooste had little power to probe Namdia since the diamond entity was not one of the parastatals under his ministerial supervision via a Cabinet policy which categorised state-owned entities.

This, sources said, might change in September this year when the law is changed.

Jooste is said to have produced a report for the President. could not find out what was in the report since it was only shared amongst a few people.

The secretive launch of Namdia angered Presidential aides, who believe that the blame would be placed on the Geingob administration if it is found that Namdia underpriced diamonds or was involved in dubious deals. It’s unclear why Geingob would claim not to be informed if he chairs Cabinet, which was supposed to approve the Namdia board, unless the decision was made while he was out of the country.

Sources close to Geingob said he was fuming in a Cabinet meeting last year after first reported that Namdia started operating under a veil of secrecy. His anger appeared to be directed at Kandjoze, who was involved in most of the high- level approvals, such as board appointments and hand-picking a company that would value Namdia diamonds for five years.

It’s unclear what the President will now do about Namdia, but people close to him are pushing for an independent forensic investigation into the diamond firm before it becomes too late. This, officials said, would stop any irregularities which could paint Namidia’s activities as “corrupt and dirty”.

A source in the Presidency said Namibia could be losing out on foreign currency not flowing into the country because it was suspected that the money – kickbacks from alleged underpricing – was exchanged abroad.

One senior government official told that the consistent underpricing of diamonds could be costing Namibia’s cash-strapped government about N$1 billion or more per year.

Mines minister Kandjoze also appointed C-Sixty Investment, a well-connected middleman-run company, to evaluate Namdia’s diamonds, estimated to be worth around N$2 billion per year.

C-Sixty Investment is owned by businessmen John Walenga and Tironenn Kauluma (the nephew of former mines minister Helmut Angula).

At the time of its appointment, C-Sixty Investment’s directors were Walenga as chair, Patricia Kauazunda (deputy chairperson), Uushona Shiimi and Rosa Nangolo. It’s unclear whether the same directors are still with the company.

State House sources said the President was also worried about the contract between the mines ministry and Walenga’s C-Sixty Investment since it was pushed through by Kandjoze, allegedly without Geingob’s knowledge. Walenga and former minister Helmut Angula are close allies of the President.

The weekly Windhoek Observer reported last week that Namdia director Bonny Konjore said at a board meeting on 27 March that he had reservations about the 1% of total sales paid to C-Sixty after every sale.

Konjore said the payment was not sustainable, since C Sixty was also paid for every carat it evaluated.

According to documents cited by the newspaper, Namdia sold diamonds worth N$153 million in January this year, N$220 million in March and N$176 million in April.

Based on those figures, Walenga’s company received not less than N$1,5 million from the January sales, N$2,2 million in March and N$1,7 million in April. Questions sent to State House last Wednesday went unanswered.

Kandjoze, who tried to pre-empt this story by posting the questions sent to him on social media last Friday, stating that he was “not in the know” about the investigation ordered by the President. He referred those questions to Jooste.

Namdia CEO Kennedy Hamutenya said Jooste did not investigate the company, and that there was no probe ordered by the President.

“There is no way a President can ask a minister to investigate a fellow minister,” he countered. An official in Jooste’s ministry disputed Hamutenya’s claim that there was no investigation.

He, however, admitted that the finance ministry directed Namdia to the public enterprises minister after they tried to get treasury guarantees for their monthly diamond sales. The finance ministry told Namdia to submit their business plan to Jooste’s ministry for inspection.

Namdia’s first business plan was rejected by Jooste, but the parastatal returned with a revamped version which was approved by the public enterprises ministry.

Hamutenya admitted that the contract between the energy ministry and C-Sixty Investment can be renegotiated in order to improve performance.

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