Africa-Press – Namibia. OFFICIAL trips for which the government pays subsistence and travelling allowances (S&Ts) are a lucrative activity for Namibia’s Cabinet ministers, former fisheries and marine resources minister Bernhard Esau confessed in the Windhoek High Court on Friday.
Testifying on the third day of the hearing of his second application to be granted bail, Esau told acting judge David Munsu that S&T payments which he saved were one of the sources of income from which he paid for infrastructure developments at his Omaheke region farm.
“Travelling was very lucrative for us as ministers,” Esau (65) said. “That’s where we made money, my lord. And we saved money from there. If you are not a person of style, you can save money.”
With a chuckle, he continued: “That is public knowledge. That’s what has become an issue of public interest, my lord. Everybody, they’re interested [that] the ministers are getting a lot of money: ‘You are corrupt because you are getting a lot of money from S&T.’”
As minister of fisheries “I travelled a lot”, Esau told the judge.
He said he had an annual travelling budget of N$1,5 million, and if he exceeded that budget, his extra travelling costs were paid from a marine resources fund.
He also said on official trips “I used to stay not in five-star or four-star hotels; I stayed at bed and breakfasts”.
During visits to Swakopmund, where he grew up, he stayed at his mother’s house in the town’s Mondesa area, he said.
Later adding that he did not have expensive habits, Esau remarked: “And I was not wearing Gucci and those things. That is not my style.”
Ministerial S&T rates varied depending on the destination Cabinet members travelled to on official business, he said.
S&T rates for trips to Angola were high, and so were rates for travelling to the United States – more than US$500 per day, or up to US$1 500 per day, he continued.
Esau gave this explanation after one of his defence lawyers, Florian Beukes, asked him how he paid for improvements that were made at his farm in the Omaheke region.
According to Esau, he paid for infrastructure developments at his farm with income from cattle sales, money from savings that included S&Ts, and pension fund payouts – and not with money derived from the fishing industry.
Beukes questioned Esau about the source of funds used to do infrastructure developments at his farm as a result of an allegation by the state that he derived benefits totalling about N$3,4 million for expenses incurred for his farm from the Icelandic fishing company group Samherji’s corrupt acquisition of Namibian fishing quotas.
The state is also alleging that Esau received traceable financial benefits of at least N$5,4 million from Samherji’s involvement in the Namibian fishing sector.
Esau repeatedly denied on Friday that he received money from an alleged scheme to secure Namibian fishing quotas for the Samherji group.
“Not a single cent – not a single cent came to my accounts for my benefit, neither a single cent to any entity which belongs to me, neither in cash or otherwise, in transfers. Nothing at all,” he said.
He continued: “In my moral or ethical chemistry I’m not a person of kickbacks or ‘10%’. I’m not that one. I was never that one. So I have not benefitted, and I would never have accepted benefitting.”
‘SHOCKED AND USED’
In connection with an allegation by the state that a payment of N$150 000 which he received from his son-in-law and co-accused Tamson ‘Fitty’ Hatuikulipi originated from a Samherji company, Mermaria Seafood Namibia, Esau said Hatuikulipi paid that money to him for cattle which Hatuikulipi and his wife – Esau’s daughter – kept on the farm of Esau and his wife.
He had no knowledge of the N$150 000 having originated from Mermaria Seafood Namibia, Esau added.
He further told the court the state’s disclosure of its evidence to him and his co-accused “has opened up my eyes”, and that he has realised “I was hoodwinked, deceived, blindfolded”.
“It is a confirmation that I was used, misused,” he said. “Not for my benefit, but for the benefit of others.”
Esau said he was “shocked” when he learned of the scale of payments of more than N$200 million alleged to have been made by Samherji companies for Namibian fishing quotas.
“I cannot honestly speaking take responsibility, or shoulder the blame of what happened here. […] I did not receive any money – not an iota of a cent – and here I am labelled corrupt, a disgraced minister,” he said.
“I feel betrayed in this very matter,” he added as he continued with his testimony.
Esau, who has been held in custody since his arrest near the end of November 2019, is due to return to the witness stand when the bail hearing continues today.
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