Africa-Press – Namibia. THE Namibia Tourism Board’s lawyer says the main question now is whether they will force fraud-accused businessman Ernest Adjovi to pay back the N$23 million he allegedly scammed from the government.
Attorney Kaijata Kangueehi, who represented the tourism board (NTB) in its case against Adjovi’s company Mundial Telecom SARL says the outcome of the court case yesterday is exactly what they wanted.
“The question is: will we get the money?” Kangueehi spoke to The Namibian yesterday.
This scandal implicates Geingob and former justice minister Sacky Shanghala, who was involved in facilitating the payment of taxpayers’ millions to the businessman with a reputation of running a music awards scam.
High Court judge Herman Oosthuizen ruled yesterday that Adjovi’s Benin-based company Mundial Telecom SARL must pay back N$23 million to the tourism board, for failing to deliver a music awards show. Questions surround whether or not the NTB will succeed in recouping the N$23 million from Adjovi and company.
“I’m glad we have passed the first hurdle. The next stage will depend on the client but there are international instruments we can use to go after Adjovi, whether he is in Ivory Coast or not,” Kangueehi said. He did not specify the exact instruments, saying he needs to brief the NTB first.
In his judgement, Oosthuizen mostly focused on the technical aspects of the case and concluded that the NTB has shown that Adjovi should pay back the N$23 million – with 20% interest per years, calculated from July 2016.
“I need to mention that Adjovi previously under oath conveyed his unwillingness to testify under oath in Namibia as he believed he would be arrested for fraud and corruption when entering Namibia,” Oosthuizen said.
Adjovi has made an affidavit that includes WhatsApp conversations he had with Geingob. Those conversations show that Geingob was involved in facilitating the payments to Adjovi.
On 4 November 2015, Geingob wrote to Adjovi: “Hi, thank you for the update on Kora, I met comrade [Pohamba] Shifeta yesterday after the Cabinet meeting, and urged him to hasting [hasten] the process. I hope he does that.” Payments started flowing to Adjovi a month later, with the assistance of Shanghala when he was attorney general.
The award ceremony promised by Adjovi never took place. The NTB sued Adjovi’s company for US$1,5 million in connection with payments then totalling N$23,5 million which it had made to Mundial Telecom in December 2015, January 2016 and February 2016, before the company was due to stage the All Africa Kora Music Awards in Namibia in March 2016.
In terms of an agreement concluded between the NTB and Mundial Telecom on 4 December 2015, the company undertook to promote Namibia as a tourism destination through television clips which were to be shown in African countries participating in the awards.
The agreement also had a clause stating that Mundial Telecom was to repay the US$1,5 million it was to receive from the NTB for the Namibian tourism promotional campaign within 60 days if the awards ceremony did not take place in Namibia.
The NTB claimed that after the awards show was not staged, as touted by Adjovi and Mundial Telecom, the company failed to repay the money and used the funds it had received from the NTB for purposes other than those intended and agreed to by the company and the tourism board.
NTB’s legal counsel Thabang Phatela remarked during an address to the court that the case “concerns one of the most far-reaching abuses of a Namibian public entity by a foreign company in its quest to gain access to public funds”. Geingob has denied any wrongdoing in the past.
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