THE Prosecutor General only received the record of the Social Security Commission/Avid High Court inquiry this week, it was revealed yesterday.
This is despite the Acting High Court judge Raymond Heathcote requesting the Registrar of the High Court in December to pass the court record to the PG so she can consider whether to charge witnesses who had lied before the inquiry with perjury. Through the liquidation of little-known investment company Avid after it failed to return a N$30 million investment of the SSC it emerged that some witnesses had been less than truthful with the court over their involvement in the botched deal.Attorney General Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana yesterday told the National Assembly that the Prosecutor General Martha Imalwa had only received the court record of the inquiry at her own request on Monday.”She is not under any time pressure to rush into decisions involving people’s lives and careers and the public interest,” said Iivula-Ithana.She said the PG could only be expected to act once she had studied the record and made the “necessary inquiries and considerations.””Now is too early for that,” said Iivula-Ithana.She was responding to questions raised by the Congress of Democrats Nora Schimming-Chase as to what legal steps had been taken against those who had given false information in the Avid inquiry.Iivula-Ithana said because the Prosecutor General was not answerable to Parliament, she was unable to say whether there was any intention to act against alleged perjurers and if ever, when this would happen.The claws came out during the exchange between Iivula-Ithana and Schimming-Chase, while during her response to the questions, the Attorney General instructed a chamber messenger to hand Schimming-Chase a copy of the constitution, to demonstrate that the judiciary was independent of Government and that as the Attorney General she had no influence over the office of the PG.Iivula-Ithana termed Schimming-Chase’s questions “uninformed”.Schimming-Chase waved away the messenger and said she had her own copy which was worn out from being read so often, and didn’t want the one Iivula-Ithana was offering.”As Attorney General I exercise final responsibility over the Prosecutor General and by court interpretation, we, the Prosecutor General and myself, are enjoined to regularly consult.However, this cannot be interpreted to mean that the Attorney General nor the Court has any entitlement to instruct the Prosecutor General to prosecute or not to prosecute as the case may be,” said Iivula-Ithana.Schimming-Chase also wanted to know whether action would be taken against the PS of Trade Andrew Ndishishi, who was also accused of perjury when information technology company Silnam, took the Offshore Development Company to court to return a N$7 million investment with them, which forms part of the N$100 million investment which the ODC has not been able to get returned to it.On this matter, Iivula-Ithana said it was up to the Minister of Trade and Industry to take such a decision.But she said given that the matter had been settled out of court, and no judgement had been handed down or was likely to be handed down, there would no basis on which to pursue perjury charges.Heathcote had labelled Ndishishi a “serial perjurer” in reference to two vastly different accounts of the N$100 million investment.Through the liquidation of little-known investment company Avid after it failed to return a N$30 million investment of the SSC it emerged that some witnesses had been less than truthful with the court over their involvement in the botched deal.Attorney General Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana yesterday told the National Assembly that the Prosecutor General Martha Imalwa had only received the court record of the inquiry at her own request on Monday.”She is not under any time pressure to rush into decisions involving people’s lives and careers and the public interest,” said Iivula-Ithana.She said the PG could only be expected to act once she had studied the record and made the “necessary inquiries and considerations.””Now is too early for that,” said Iivula-Ithana.She was responding to questions raised by the Congress of Democrats Nora Schimming-Chase as to what legal steps had been taken against those who had given false information in the Avid inquiry.Iivula-Ithana said because the Prosecutor General was not answerable to Parliament, she was unable to say whether there was any intention to act against alleged perjurers and if ever, when this would happen.The claws came out during the exchange between Iivula-Ithana and Schimming-Chase, while during her response to the questions, the Attorney General instructed a chamber messenger to hand Schimming-Chase a copy of the constitution, to demonstrate that the judiciary was independent of Government and that as the Attorney General she had no influence over the office of the PG.Iivula-Ithana termed Schimming-Chase’s questions “uninformed”.Schimming-Chase waved away the messenger and said she had her own copy which was worn out from being read so often, and didn’t want the one Iivula-Ithana was offering.”As Attorney General I exercise final responsibility over the Prosecutor General and by court interpretation, we, the Prosecutor General and myself, are enjoined to regularly consult.However, this cannot be interpreted to mean that the Attorney General nor the Court has any entitlement to instruct the Prosecutor General to prosecute or not to prosecute as the case may be,” said Iivula-Ithana.Schimming-Chase also wanted to know whether action would be taken against the PS of Trade Andrew Ndishishi, who was also accused of perjury when information technology company Silnam, took the Offshore Development Company to court to return a N$7 million investment with them, which forms part of the N$100 million investment which the ODC has not been able to get returned to it.On this matter, Iivula-Ithana said it was up to the Minister of Trade and Industry to take such a decision.But she said given that the matter had been settled out of court, and no judgement had been handed down or was likely to be handed down, there would no basis on which to pursue perjury charges.Heathcote had labelled Ndishishi a “serial perjurer” in reference to two vastly different accounts of the N$100 million investment.
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