Africa-Press – Namibia. JOSEPH Nakalemo, a former employee of the Mobile Telecommunications Corporation (MTC), lost a court case in which he sought relief from the mobile telecommunications top management and several others in the amount of N$42 million for alleged assassination attempts on his life, unfair dismissal, and other injustices he suffered at the behest of the respondents.
Nakalemo, in his claims, also sought an order that the executives and the management of the Mobile Telecommunications Corporation (MTC), as well as members of the Namibian Police (NAMPOL), step down voluntarily or be declared unfit for their positions. Tim Ekandjo, MTC Chief Human Capital Officer, Maria Kavari, MTC Senior NMQT Administrator, and Joseph Shikongo, Inspector General of the Namibian Police, are amongst the respondents listed.
In a letter penned to the late President Hage Geingob, Nakalemo gave a background as to how the proceedings arose, narrating that he was an MTC bursary student from 2006 and a full-time MTC employee from April 2009 till July 2021. During his time at MTC, he was elected as MTC employees’ representative for a period of four years from 2015 to 2019.
“During 2017 to 2020, corruption allegations emerged at MTC amounting to N$1.29 billion. This has been pending before the ACC since 2020. I was forced by selected MTC Executives and management to disclose the informants, which was against the terms of reference for our operation in our capacity as employees’ representatives, and I did not submit to such requests. Following my refusal to disclose the informants, attempts were then made to assassinate me, as per the allegations,” Nakalemo said.
He added that the corruption allegations involved Ludwig Heinrich Totandi, MTC General Manager for Network and Transmission and acting Chief Technology Officer at the time, who was suspected of corruption in MTC’s tenders worth about N$1.29 billion in total.
The former MTC employee claimed that the assassination attempts happened at Ongha in the North during December 2019, during the Christmas holiday, and that this was to cover up corruption at MTC now totalling N$1.29 billion.
Nakalemo further claimed that the above criminal case was then allegedly sabotaged by NAMPOL officials, tampering with the docket by removing data from the docket, with the alleged blessing of the current Inspector General of the Namibian Police. The second alleged attempt on his life, Nakalemo said, happened on Eveline Street in February 2024.
Further to this, Nakalemo said that several degrees of injustices took place against him simply to have him destroyed, including being unfairly mistreated at his former workplace, being unfairly dismissed, and his pension amounting to approximately N$150,000.00 being stolen in a process allegedly facilitated by MTC Chief Human Capital Officer and MTC Managing Director.
High Court Judge Kobus Miller, in the judgment, said that as far as illiquid claims are concerned, there is little, if any, indication as to how the amounts arise, and no evidence is available to substantiate the claims.
In addition to this, the judge said that it is not disputed that the Founding Affidavit of the applicant does not meet the legal requirements in several respects. “In the matter of Tsamkxao Oma vs. Minister of Land Reform, it was held that the court may condone any non-compliance provided, however, that the defaulting party provides an adequate explanation for his or her failure. In the instant matter, no satisfactory explanation was tendered. The result is that the application must fail,” Miller said.
Furthermore, the learned judge said that it is wrong in law to institute proceedings by way of motion proceedings when factual disputes are foreseen.
He ordered that the application be dismissed and that the applicant pay the costs of the respondents who opposed the application, which will include the costs of one instructing and one instructed counsel where employed.
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