SPYL man to sue Govt for millions

A MEMBER of the ruling Swapo Party’s youth wing is demanding N$4,72 million from Government for losses he claims to have suffered after a joint venture between his company and the National Youth Council failed to get off the ground.

Wenzel Mavara of Kavango Cleaning Services and Pest Control started the enterprise some seven years ago and won an international award from the Commonwealth in 2002 because he employed 19 fellow youths. He says he lost business and all his clients because the then Ministry of Higher Education, Training and Employment never honoured a co-operation agreement.It was signed on June 1 2004 between Mavara and the Ministry’s former Deputy Minister, Hadino Hishongwa, who recently became High Commissioner to Botswana.”I have no income, my former employees earn no salary and we just hang around at Berg Aukas, where the National Youth Service is situated,” Mavara told The Namibian in an interview.”My family is in Rundu because I am not allowed to bring my family there,” the father of three children added.He is also a member of the Swapo Party Youth League central committee.He ordered an independent audit to assess the business he lost since June 2004 and the audit firm concluded that he would have made N$4,7 million, had he remained with his business at Rundu.”I instructed my lawyers to demand that amount of money from the Ministry, which is now the Ministry of Youth, National Service, Sport and Culture,” Mavara added.Former Deputy Minister Hishongwa had the National Youth Service (NYS) under his wing at that time.On May 3 2004, he sent a letter to Mavara in Rundu, confirming the young entrepreneur’s offer to train NYS members in pest control and to expand these services countrywide.According to the joint venture document, the new business was to be a 50:50 partnership with equal sharing of profits.Mavara was invited to move his enterprise to Berg Aukas with his equipment and staff.They received accommodation in the youth hostel of the NYS and a small monthly allowance.The idea was to continue in a similar vein as Mavara’s company – cleaning and spraying State schools, hostels, clinics, hospitals and military barracks for pest control in all 13 regions and thereby training NYS members and creating jobs for them after their term at the NYS.According to documents in possession of The Namibian, Mavara’s lawyers accused the present Ministry of Youth, National Service, Sport and Culture, the successor of the former Higher Education, Training and Employment Creation Ministry, of “breaching the joint venture agreement, that it failed to register the business and to put all the necessary framework and infrastructure in place in order for the business to be incorporated …and to start with the operations.”The letter was written in March this year.On July 9 the Government Attorney in the Ministry of Justice replied instead of the Youth Ministry, informing the law firm that the matter had been referred to her office.On September 13, Government Attorney Vivienne Katjiuongua sent another letter to Mavara’s lawyers, stating that her office had given a legal opinion on the matter to Government.”We await further instructions from our client (Government),” Katjiuongua wrote.She is currently on study leave and will only return to the office in January.Mavara’s law firm has heard nothing since then.”We are waiting as we want to know what the legal opinion says,” an official in the law firm told The Namibian last week.But a source close to the NYS said the legal opinion was not in favour of the Ministry.”They really messed up on that joint venture in 2004 and the Government Attorney’s office told them so,” the source claimed.The Permanent Secretary in Youth and Culture Ministry, Dr Peingondjabi Shipoh, dismissed the issue.”I cannot actually comment on the matter as Mavara wants to sue us,” Shipoh told The Namibian on Friday.”I became Permanent Secretary in this Ministry only after all this happened, but I attended to the matter and we had several meetings with Mavara and the NYS, the last one in July 2006,” he said.Shipoh added that he had offered to draw up a business plan, register the company at the Ministry of Trade and to find new ways of co-operation from there.”He [Mavara] never came back to me, I am still waiting for the business plan and documentation that the enterprise was registered.”Mavara was also given the use of a Government car, but this was stopped.”Mavara is not a Government official and what will happen in the case of an accident with a Government vehicle?” Shipoh added.Interestingly, Mavara and his NYS pest control team were called out to the farm of former President Sam Nujoma five days before Christmas in 2005.Loide Mumbala, Secretary in the Office of the Founding President, faxed a letter to the NYS on December 20 2005.”I am kindly requesting you to provide your service at Etunda Trust Farm, 33 km from Otavi.People are bitten by mosquitoes, therefore I need your urgent attention, if it is possible today,” Mumbala wrote.Asked to comment, Mavara said they duly drove to Nujoma’s farm and did some spraying.”We never got paid for that job,” he told The Namibian.He is adamant that he will go as far as suing the Government to obtain the N$4,72 million.He says he lost business and all his clients because the then Ministry of Higher Education, Training and Employment never honoured a co-operation agreement.It was signed on June 1 2004 between Mavara and the Ministry’s former Deputy Minister, Hadino Hishongwa, who recently became High Commissioner to Botswana. “I have no income, my former employees earn no salary and we just hang around at Berg Aukas, where the National Youth Service is situated,” Mavara told The Namibian in an interview.”My family is in Rundu because I am not allowed to bring my family there,” the father of three children added.He is also a member of the Swapo Party Youth League central committee.He ordered an independent audit to assess the business he lost since June 2004 and the audit firm concluded that he would have made N$4,7 million, had he remained with his business at Rundu.”I instructed my lawyers to demand that amount of money from the Ministry, which is now the Ministry of Youth, National Service, Sport and Culture,” Mavara added.Former Deputy Minister Hishongwa had the National Youth Service (NYS) under his wing at that time.On May 3 2004, he sent a letter to Mavara in Rundu, confirming the young entrepreneur’s offer to train NYS members in pest control and to expand these services countrywide.According to the joint venture document, the new business was to be a 50:50 partnership with equal sharing of profits.Mavara was invited to move his enterprise to Berg Aukas with his equipment and staff.They received accommodation in the youth hostel of the NYS and a small monthly allowance.The idea was to continue in a similar vein as Mavara’s company – cleaning and spraying State schools, hostels, clinics, hospitals and military barracks for pest control in all 13 regions and thereby training NYS members and creating jobs for them after their term at the NYS.According to documents in possession of The Namibian, Mavara’s lawyers accused the present Ministry of Youth, National Service, Sport and Culture, the successor of the former Higher Education, Training and Employment Creation Ministry, of “breaching the joint venture agreement, that it failed to register the business and to put all the necessary framework and infrastructure in place in order for the business to be incorporated …and to start with the operations.”The letter was written in March this year.On July 9 the Government Attorney in the Ministry of Justice replied instead of the Youth Ministry, informing the law firm that the matter had been referred to her office.On September 13, Government Attorney Vivienne Katjiuongua sent another letter to Mavara’s lawyers, stating that her office had given a legal opinion on the matter to Government.”We await further instructions from our client (Government),” Katjiuongua wrote.She is currently on study leave and will only return to the office in January.Mavara’s law firm has heard nothing since then.”We are waiting as we want to know what the legal opinion says,” an official in the law firm told The Namibian last week.But a source close to the NYS said the legal opinion was not in favour of the Ministry.”They really messed up on that joint venture in 2004 and the Government Attorney’s office told them so,” the source claimed.The Permanent Secretary in Youth and Culture Ministry, Dr Peingondjabi Shipoh, dismissed the issue.”I cannot actually comment on the matter as Mavara wants to sue us,” Shipoh told The Namibian on Friday.”I became Permanent Secretary in this Ministry only after all this happened, but I attended to the matter and we had several meetings with Mavara and the NYS, the last one in July 2006,” he said.Shipoh added that he had offered to draw up a business plan, register the company at the Ministry of Trade and to find new ways of co-operation from there.”He [Mavara] never came back to me, I am still waiting for the business plan and documentation that the enterprise was registered.”Mavara was also given the use of a Government car, but this was stopped.”Mavara is not a Government official and what will happen in the case of an accident with a Government vehicle?” Shipoh added.Interestingly, Mavara and his NYS pest control team were called out to the farm of former President Sam Nujoma five days before Christmas in 2005.Loide Mumbala, Secretary in the Office of the Founding President, faxed a letter to the NYS on December 20 2005.”I am kindly requesting you to provide your service at Etunda Trust Farm, 33 km from Otavi.People are bitten by mosquitoes, therefore I need your urgent attention, if it is possible today,” Mumbala wrote.Asked to comment, Mavara said they duly drove to Nujoma’s farm and did some spraying.”We never got paid for that job,” he told The Namibian.He is adamant that he will go as far as suing the Government to obtain the N$4,72 million.