South African authorities ‘lied’ about Phala Phala engagement with Namibia

SOUTH African government entities dealing with the Phala Phala investigation seemed to have lied over communications with their Namibian counterparts.

The legal letter sent to South Africa’s department of justice on 23 July 2020, asking for mutual assistance, was swept under the rug.

The contents of the letter from the Ministry of Justice in Namibia to South African justice minister Ronald Lamola can now be revealed.

This comes despite Lamola’s spokesperson, Chrispin Phiri, in June 2022 saying: “We can categorically state that, to date, there is no official record of this specific request.”

The letter, which has been seen by Sunday Independent, dated 23 July 2020, states that it is a “request for mutual legal assistance in a criminal matter from the Republic of South Africa: suspected money laundering offences in contravention of the prevention of the Organised Crime Act”.

The letter named the alleged mastermind of the Phala Phala farm robbery, Imanuwela David, and his accomplices, Petrus Afrikaner and Erkki Shikongo, as the “subjects”.

These were some of the five men who were named by former spy boss Arthur Fraser when he opened a case of defeating the ends of justice, kidnapping and torture against president Cyril Ramaphosa and the head of his Presidential Protection Service, general Wally Rhoode, as the Namibians who stole an undisclosed amount of American dollars, estimated to be between US$4 million and US$8 million, from the president’s farm.

The letter said the three men “made electronic fund transfers (EFTs) to various individuals’ bank accounts in Namibia”.
“According to the information provided to the Namibian Police, the subjects are alleged to have committed theft in South Africa,” the letter stated.

The letter also revealed the EFT payments the men made from their South African bank accounts into Namibian bank accounts.
The letter revealed in detail the withdrawals the men made in Namibia using different references.

It stated a Namibian Police investigation revealed that some of “the beneficiaries that received money purchased properties”.

The letter stated that “in the light of the above investigations, the Namibian Police request mutual legal assistance through your ministry, from the Republic of South Africa, to obtain the following listed evidential information”.
The following was listed:

“Obtain opening account documents, as well as the bank statements for accounts of Shikongo, Afrikaner and David in South Africa.

“The relevant South African authorities to provide information on the origin of the funds electronically transferred to Namibia.

“The relevant South African authorities to provide information on whether the subjects have committed felonies. If they committed felonies in South Africa, kindly also provide us with the pertinent documents.

“The relevant South African authorities are to provide an affidavit indicating any employment information, income and salary information, as well as any business interest the subjects may have.”

The letter added that “the requested information is required as a matter of urgency”.

The letter was ignored and its existence was later denied by the South African authorities.

A former employee of the department of justice said: “This request was deliberately ignored to protect president Cyril Ramaphosa from the Phala Phala farm robbery scandal. Any government that is serious about fighting crime should have jumped on this request.

“I told you in June last year that I personally received the phone call from my Namibian counterpart who was frustrated by our silence . . . and I was ignored too when I raised the issue in our office.

“That’s when I started to smell a rat.”

Phiri on Friday said officials in the department did not know who these men were as no case had been opened against them in South Africa.

He later said the letter was filed under ‘Afrikaner’, who is the lesser known of the five men implicated in the Phala Phala theft.

“One of the reasons we initially stated that we didn’t have a letter of mutual legal assistance is because we were searching our files and our systems under Imanuwela David and we didn’t pick up anything.

“But later the letter was found filed under Afrikaner, who is the first subject mentioned in the letter,” said Phiri.

He denied that the letter was deliberately ignored to obscure the scandal and to protect Ramaphosa.

“The request which the department of justice and constitutional development received was not specifically in relation to Mr David Immanuwela only as intimated by our sister nation’s police force.

“It is not correct that there was no response from South Africa on the requested mutual legal assistance in the case involving Mr David.

“The central authority of the Republic of South Africa has transmitted correspondence through the diplomatic channels to set the record straight with the Namibian authorities.”

But the request seen by Sunday Independent paints a different picture.

Namibian prosecutor general Martha Imalwa confirmed to Sunday Independent in June last year that she advised the local police to seek mutual legal assistance from South Africa.

“They wanted my office to prepare a preservation order, but there was some outstanding information missing from South Africa, and I advised them to contact their South African counterparts for these, but in the end, they came back empty-handed,” Imalwa said.

Fraser last year said Ramaphosa and Rhoode failed to report the robbery at any police station.

Fraser said the thieves, who were all Namibians based in Cape Town, were traced and apprehended and allegedly tortured to reveal where they had stashed the stolen money.

He claims the men were paid R150 000 for their silence and released after handing over their loot.
– Sunday Independent

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