BUSINESSMAN Paulo Shipoke will be paid N$7 million for resigning from Power Oyeno Construction, the company which received an N$800 million tender for the Swakopmund mass housing project.
Metcalfe Attorneys Walvis Bay, who are representing Shipoke’s partner Albert Antonius Paulus, announced this yesterday. Shipoke’s exit is as a result of constant fights and accusations of the misuse of money and dishonesty, amongst many other things.
“Power Oyeno Construction (Namibia) wishes to advise the public through the media that Paulo Shipoke is no longer the managing director of Power Oyeno Construction (Namibia). Shipoke resigned voluntarily on 26 April 2016, ” Antonius Paulus’s lawyers Metcalfe Attorneys stated.
Shipoke’s resignation signals the end of a sour relationship he had with his businesspartner turned rival Antonius Paulus.
The exit by Shipoke means he will be paid N$7 million for going out of a joint venture company between a Namibian company and a South African firm, who are constructing houses under the mass housing project. The tussle in this case was mainly about the ownership of Oyeno Properties, a Namibian company which went into the joint venture with the South Africans to form Power Oyeno Construction. Part of that fight stemmed from allegations of fraud, fronting and unfulfilled promises.
Shipoke and Antonius Paulus owned a company called Oyeno Properties on a 50 50 share basis.
The duo were among a few Namibians who acted as middlemen, also seen as the black face of partnerships, with mainly South African companies that the National Housing Enterprise (NHE) roped in to build low cost houses.
In 2015, trouble started brewing in the partnership when Antonius Paulus made allegations of the squandering of mass housing money from the company’s bank account against his partner Shipoke.
Shipoke denied the allegations, but accused Paulus of being a silent partner, a middleman ‘just sitting at home’ who did not invest a single cent or time into the company.
The battle for the ownership of the company went on this year, and even led to the deportation of a senior manager of the South African company.
The disagreements resulted in Shipoke resigning as managing director of Power Oyeno Construction (Namibia).
After that, according to Metcalfe Attorneys, Shipoke sold his shares in Power Oyeno (the joint venture with the South Africans) to Albert Antonius Paulus for N$7 million.
The same Antonius Paulus also sold his 50% stake in Oyeno Properties to Shipoke, which means Shipoke now has control of the Namibian company and not the joint venture firm which partnered with the South Africans.
After that, Antonius Paulus was subsequently appointed the new managing director of Power Oyeno Construction as from 26 April 2016. Metcalfe Attorneys said all lawsuits have now been dropped by all parties.
Efforts to get comment from Shipoke were not successful, but the announcement by Metcalfe Attorneys Walvis Bay closes another chapter of the controversial mass housing project.
Even though Shipoke’s detractors argue that the businessman misused mass housing money and wanted to charge the government more than the initial cost, some stood by him.
Those backing Shipoke said the South African company is using his controversial financial claims from the government last year as a smokescreen to get rid of him so that they can control the company.
