Tools, driver vanish

A SECURITY guard-turned-driver, a vehicle and some building equipment belonging to the now defunct Development Brigade Corporation (DBC) all disappeared without trace in 1996 after a former senior manger took them for personal use.

The missing driver, the vehicle, three wheelbarrows and five spread-levels were allegedly removed from the Keetmanshoop centre by its former Manager, Rachel Hipondoka, to construct her personal house in Berg Aukas in the outskirts of Grootfontein. Hipondoka apparently returned to Keetmanshoop without the equipment.Yesterday, the Presidential commissioners probing the former DBC and Amcom’s operations spent the afternoon session of the first day of the hearing piecing together clues on what really happened to the property, including the driver – a certain Mr Hango.The commission was later told that the vehicle was reported stolen but no case was opened with the Police.Hango was said to have moved to Walvis Bay.No information emerged on the whereabouts of the other equipment yesterday.”It was difficult to ask the centre’s manager [Hipondoka] that time.We were afraid.She was the manager… [and] before we could even ask her she was already threatening us that we [had] sent our relatives to steal the vehicle,” testified one witness, a former DBC instructor at the Keetmanshoop centre, Angelina Kamwaka.Added another, Linus Kamati:”I handed out the equipment and never received them back.We asked her [Hipondoka] about them and the vehicle but she would never tell us.”Kamati, who was working as stores officer at the Keetmanshoop centre, confirmed that Hipondoka had removed the equipment for her personal use.He answered in the affirmative when the commission’s legal counsel, Eldorette Harmse, asked him whether it was standard practice for employees to take company equipment for private purposes.Another piece of equipment apparently taken and never returned to the Keetmanshoop centre was bricklaying machine, which Kamwaka estimated to be valued at about N$100 000.”It was loaded in a truck by a white person, maybe he had connections with the centre manager because she never informed us why and where it was going,” she claimed, through an interpreter.When Hipondoka was given a chance to ask Kamwaka questions for clarity, she put it to the witness that during the year [1996] of the alleged disappearance of the equipment she [Hipondoka] was already transferred to the Ondangwa centre.But Kamwaka insisted that Hipondoka only went to Ondangwa because she had a house there.”She was still the head of the Keetmanshoop centre and she was responsible for everything there.”The hearing continues today when more witnesses, including Hipondoka, are expected to give evidence.Hipondoka apparently returned to Keetmanshoop without the equipment.Yesterday, the Presidential commissioners probing the former DBC and Amcom’s operations spent the afternoon session of the first day of the hearing piecing together clues on what really happened to the property, including the driver – a certain Mr Hango.The commission was later told that the vehicle was reported stolen but no case was opened with the Police.Hango was said to have moved to Walvis Bay.No information emerged on the whereabouts of the other equipment yesterday.”It was difficult to ask the centre’s manager [Hipondoka] that time.We were afraid.She was the manager… [and] before we could even ask her she was already threatening us that we [had] sent our relatives to steal the vehicle,” testified one witness, a former DBC instructor at the Keetmanshoop centre, Angelina Kamwaka.Added another, Linus Kamati:”I handed out the equipment and never received them back.We asked her [Hipondoka] about them and the vehicle but she would never tell us.”Kamati, who was working as stores officer at the Keetmanshoop centre, confirmed that Hipondoka had removed the equipment for her personal use.He answered in the affirmative when the commission’s legal counsel, Eldorette Harmse, asked him whether it was standard practice for employees to take company equipment for private purposes.Another piece of equipment apparently taken and never returned to the Keetmanshoop centre was bricklaying machine, which Kamwaka estimated to be valued at about N$100 000.”It was loaded in a truck by a white person, maybe he had connections with the centre manager because she never informed us why and where it was going,” she claimed, through an interpreter.When Hipondoka was given a chance to ask Kamwaka questions for clarity, she put it to the witness that during the year [1996] of the alleged disappearance of the equipment she [Hipondoka] was already transferred to the Ondangwa centre.But Kamwaka insisted that Hipondoka only went to Ondangwa because she had a house there.”She was still the head of the Keetmanshoop centre and she was responsible for everything there.”The hearing continues today when more witnesses, including Hipondoka, are expected to give evidence.