||Kharas Regional Council chairperson Joseph Isaacks and councillor Jeremiah Goeieman have denied evading arrest by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
Both were to be arrested on corruption charges at Keetmanshoop on Wednesday.
Isaacks says the ACC officials arrived at the regional council premises during an ordinary council meeting which the councillors adjourned.
“They said they only wanted to speak to us. Then they started to inform us that we are under arrest for corruptly using our office and obtaining gratification.
“We disagreed as I stated that I as a councillor did not obtain gratification and they argued that the salary of the lady we appointed is gratification,” says Isaack.
He says while this argument between the councillors and ACC officials was ongoing, they started to hear voices and footsteps in the corridors and people stormed into the office.
Isaacks says the people who arrived were Landless People’s Movement (LPM) supporters who heard about the ACC and came to resist their arrest.
“The situation became heated and escalated very quickly. Then the chief regional officer requested the ACC officials to kindly escort them out of the office and the building for their own safety, which the ACC officers complied with,” he says.
According to Isaacks the councillors waited in the chief regional officer’s (CRO’s) office for ACC officials to return after the situation was stabilised.
He says the ACC officers did not return, and when it was after 17h00, both councillors got into their vehicles and drove home.
“Even this morning I went to the office and informed the CRO that we will be at the LPM regional offices should anyone be looking for us, but so far no one has come looking for us,” says Isaacks.
According to him, the arrests are politically motivated as the regional council and local authority elections are next week and are an attack on Nama-speaking people.
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