State sent back to the startin Namcor bail appeal bid

The state will have to start afresh if it wants to continue with an attempt to appeal against a ruling in which former National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (Namcor) manager Cedric Willemse was granted bail in an amount of N$200 000 last October.

An application in which the state is asking to be permitted to appeal against the granting of bail to Willemse (53) was struck off the court roll in the Windhoek High Court yesterday.

While ordering that the state’s application for leave to appeal is struck off the court roll, judge Naomi Shivute said the state will have to start afresh if it wants continue with an attempt to appeal against the ruling in which Willemse was granted bail.

State advocate Basson Lilungwe informed Shivute yesterday that the state has sent a letter to the court to ask to be given more time to prepare written arguments on its application for leave to appeal.

However, Shivute told Lilungwe the state was supposed to launch a proper application for a postponement if it wanted to be given more time to prepare its arguments.

The state filed an application for leave to appeal to the High Court after magistrate Olga Muharukua granted Willemse bail in an amount of N$200 000 in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court near the end of October last year.

Willemse is facing 10 charges in connection with alleged fraud and corruption at Namcor, where he was employed as the state-owned fuel company’s supply and logistics manager.

The charges against him include counts of fraud, corruptly using an office or position for gratification, corruptly accepting gratification, money laundering and failing to pay tax.

During his bail hearing before Muharukua, Willemse said money paid to him was for meat he had sold from his farm and for logistics services provided by a close corporation of which he is a member.

Willemse also said he has evidence like invoices on a laptop computer to which he does not have access as it has been seized by the Anti-Corruption Commission, and that he cannot get access to other evidence to back up his explanation for the payments because it is stored in boxes at his farm in the Okahandja area.

In her ruling, Muharukua said in her opinion Willemse gave a plausible explanation for the money paid to him, and that this weakens the state’s case against him.

The magistrate said the evidence placed before her was cause for suspicion and investigations, but she was not satisfied that Willemse is unlikely to successfully defend himself against the charges, with the result that the charges are unlikely to prompt him to flee if released on bail.

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