Former attorney general and minister of justice Sacky Shanghala says there are documents linked to his past membership of Swapo’s central committee that show there was no conspiracy as alleged by the state in the Fishrot fishing quotas fraud, corruption and racketeering case.
The documents show why money flowed into people’s accounts and what they did with the money, Shanghala said in the High Court at Windhoek Correctional Facility yesterday.
“It shows jerseys were bought for a Swapo congress,” Shanghala told acting judge Marilize du Plessis.
He also said some of his personal documents as a former Swapo central committee member have disappeared after being seized by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), and he is pointing fingers at the ACC about the disappearance of the documents, which he said were removed from his home.
“The ACC has been weaponised in this case,” Shanghala said as well.
He made the remarks while addressing Du Plessis on an application by himself and two of his co-accused in the Fishrot case, James Hatuikulipi and Pius Mwatelulo, to have the state ordered to disclose a range of documents to them.
Shanghala, Hatuikulipi and Mwatelulo are requesting the court to direct the state to furnish to them at least two printed copies of the case docket previously disclosed to them. According to Shanghala, the contents of the docket disclosed to them in April 2021, June 2022, June 2023 and February 2024 consists of about 165 000 pages.
They are also asking the court to order the state to disclose responses obtained from Iceland, Norway and the United Arab Emirates as a result of mutual legal assistance requests made by Namibia in terms of the International Co-operation in Criminal Matters Act.
In addition to that, Shanghala, Hatuikulipi and Mwatelulo want the court to direct the state to furnish to them information on communication between the ACC and investigators of their case.
They are further requesting the court to direct the state to provide them with information on meetings held by an integrated investigation task force that carried out an investigation that resulted in the case in which they are charged. That information should include minutes of meetings held by the task force.
“We need the documents to show there was no theft, there was no fraud,” Shanghala said while addressing the judge.
Remarking that he was charged in a “nonsense case”, Shanghala said information was being kept away from the accused while they need that information to challenge the charges they are facing.
Shanghala denied that he was trying to delay his trial, and said: “I will not be rushed into a trial of illegalities.”
He should be able to challenge illegalities “before we start with this nonsense case”, Shanghala also remarked.
Deputy prosecutor general Ed Marondedze argued that the evidence collected during the investigation of the matter has been disclosed to the accused.
The accused are not entitled to have the further material that they want the state to be directed to disclose to them, he argued.
The application of Shanghala, Hatuikulipi and Mwatelulo is a means to delay the continuation of their trial, Marondedze also argued.
“This matter must come to finality,” he said.
Du Plessis postponed the case to 8 September for the delivery of her decision on the application.
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