Shanghala dealt with details in Fishrot firm

FORMER minister of justice Sacky Shanghala was closely involved in the setting up of companies that played key roles in the Fishrot fishing quota fraud and corruption case.

Evidence about correspondence involving Shanghala shows his involvement in setting up companies under the name Namgomar Pesca in Angola and Namibia included such details as deciding on the design of a letterhead and business cards for the entities.

Shanghala in December 2013 sent emails about the design of a letterhead and business cards for the Angolan company Namgomar Pesca SA, which later received horse mackerel fishing quotas in Namibia, to his business partner and current co-accused James Hatuikulipi and to Tamson Hatuikulipi and Ricardo Gustavo, who are also charged in the Fishrot case.

Before that, in an email with the subject line “Namgomar Pesca SA Notes”, which Shanghala sent to James Hatuikulipi and Gustavo in September 2013, he introduced them to João de Barros, noting he is the son of the Angolan minister of fisheries, and welcomed De Barros “to the team”.

That message concluded with the statement: “Lets make this happen.” (sic)

The messages featured in the prosecution’s cross-examination of Gustavo during the third day of his bail hearing in the Windhoek High Court yesterday.

At the time those messages were sent, Shanghala was the chairperson of Namibia’s Law Reform and Development Commission.

Gustavo (46) has told the court he became involved with Namgomar Pesca Namibia in the last quarter of 2013. He also said he was introduced to De Barros around that time.

According to Gustavo, De Barros was his boss and was the representative of the shareholders of Namgomar Pesca SA, which is the parent company of Namgomar Pesca Namibia.

He told judge Herman Oosthuizen, who is hearing his application to be granted bail, that James Hatuikulipi was involved as an adviser to the principals of Namgomar Pesca SA, Tamson Hatuikulipi was advising the Icelandic-owned fishing company group Samherji, and Shanghala was involved in government-to-government negotiations about fisheries cooperation between Namibia and Angola.

In a letter which Gustavo addressed to Shanghala, in Shanghala’s capacity as chairperson of the Law Reform and Development Commission, and an Angolan official on 18 December 2013, he introduced Namgomar Pesca SA as an entity “owned by Angolans and Namibians in the fishing industry”, and recorded that the company has “teamed up with the Samherji Group from Iceland”.

On the same date, Shanghala and Angolan official Francisco Antonio Santos addressed a letter to the ministers of fisheries of Namibia and Angola. In that letter, it was stated that the ministers were being presented with confirmation “that Namgomar Pesca SA has been set up in Angola, as a joint venture company owned by Angolan and Namibian nationals, prepared to jointly exploit the marine resources of the contiguous coastline of the two countries”.

It was further stated that the two fisheries ministers – Namibia’s Bernhard Esau and De Barros’ mother, Victoria de Barros Neto, in Angola – could proceed to designate Namgomar Pesca SA in terms of their countries’ laws to get access to their marine resources.

Gustavo said the plan was that the Namgomar Pesca companies would have Angolan and Namibian shareholders, including himself, “but events overtook us” and it was realised that in terms of the legal framework a company with Namibian shareholders would not be able to be allocated a Namibian fishing quota under a fisheries cooperation agreement with Angola.

As the sole director and only employee of Namgomar Pesca Namibia, he served as the Namibian representative of its Angolan parent company, Gustavo said.

He denied that he was involved in an alleged plan to set up the Namgomar Pesca companies to corruptly get access to Namibian fishing quotas.

“It’s a diabolical lie,” Gustavo stated on that score.

Gustavo’s testimony was concluded yesterday.

It is expected that an Anti-Corruption Commission investigator will testify in the bail hearing today.