Africa-Press – Namibia. Former president Sam Nujoma’s long-time aide, John Nauta, is at the centre of a controversy over the sale of N$100-million worth of shares owned by a clinic established by the founding president.
These details emerged after the former executive director in the presidency, Ndeutala Angolo, questioned the sale of shares to a politically connected outfit.
The shares were owned by Indira Gandhi Clinic situated at Onemanya village about 14km south of Okahao in the Omusati region.
Nujoma started the clinic in the late 1990s to provide free maternity health to women in the region.
The Indira Gandhi Clinic is one of the four entities that owns a stake in a black empowerment outfit, Epia Investment Holdings, established in 2001. The clinic owned 20% shares in Epia Investment.
However, its shares were transferred to Tuapandula Investments in 2012, allegedly without paying for them.
Tuapandula is represented by Nauta, Epia Holdings executive director Tjeripo Hijarunguru and the late businessman Aaron Mushimba. Mushimba was Nujoma’s brother-in-law.
Speaking to The Namibian yesterday, Angolo, who is also the chairperson of the board of trustees of the clinic, said the clinic was originally intended to be self-sustaining through its shares in Epia Investment, which owned shares in Namibia Breweries Limited (NBL), part of the Ohlthaver & List Group.
However, in 2012, the clinic’s shares were transferred to another entity, Tuapandula, a politically connected outfit which also held a stake in Epia Investment.
When NBL sold shares to Heineken in 2023, Epia Investment sold back its 49% shares to NBL. What could have been paid to the clinic was paid to Tuapandula.
The Issue, an online news website, yesterday reported that Epia’s stake was worth at least N$1.5 billion, but after negotiations the empowerment group is believed to have received about N$450 million.
According to The Issue, this would have translated to each of Epia’s five shareholders receiving approximately N$90 million or more. Due to the share transfer, Tuapandula Investments’ shareholding in Epia grew from 20% to 40%, giving them the lion’s share of the proceeds, beyond N$180 million.
‘ALIVE OR IN HEAVEN’
Angolo insisted that the clinic never sold its shares.
“We have never surrendered or given [the shares] to anybody, whether alive or in heaven,” she said.
“As a board, we have tried to secure funding from various sources to maintain the clinic. There is no way we would have signed off the transfer of the clinic’s shares to anyone, because the purpose for which they were acquired still exists.”
She added that the board continues to organise fundraising efforts to support the clinic’s operations.
“It’s unfortunate and very sad that the people who were supposed to protect the clinic are the ones doing that,” she said.
She added that she was one of the founding members of the board of trustees in the late 1990s and that she never missed any of the board’s meetings.
“We have never ever taken any decision and the day that they said we gave our shares we did not meet. We only meet in December. We don’t meet in November,” Angolo said.
Approached for comment yesterday, Nauta said: “I don’t have a comment. They are the ones saying they lost money. They can approach the courts.”
DYSFUNCTIONAL
Angolo said the mortuary at the clinic is no longer functional.
She also alleges that some of the clinic’s machinery is gathering dust due to a lack of funds for maintenance.
The machineries were apparently donated by Nujoma to the clinic.
“There was modern machinery which other hospitals like Okahao do not have. There was also a mortuary, now that there is no one to maintain these things because there are no funds, these things are not functional,” she said.
Angolo said although the clinic is owned by the government, Nujoma did not want pregnant mothers to pay when they visit the clinic.
“We said that was not possible and we advised him that a fund be established to assist in that regard and to help maintain the mortuary and machinery,” she said.
However, Epia’s Hijarunguru yesterday told The Namibian that Angolo and other trustees such as former health minister Kalumbi Shangula, late medical doctor Naftal Hamata and northern businessman John Kambwela signed for the transfer of shares.
Shangula declined to comment on the matter when he was contacted for comment yesterday, saying he is no longer a part of the board of trustees.
Hijarunguru accused the board of trustees of not performing. According to him, Hamata surrendered the shares to Tuapandula.
“They were called in. At the time they did not even have a bank account for the trust and when the clinic was bankrupt and had to be handed over to the government, they did not say why they were not performing. The founding president was disappointed in them,” Hijarunguru said.
He said the clinic did not receive any fund from Epia Investment until 2012 as it did not have money.
“She was sleeping all the time, how can she member something that she signed in 2012? If you check their signatures on the document that they signed,” he said.
Hijarunguru alleged that Angolo would “eat” sitting allowances if the money was to be paid to the clinic. “That’s the whole story behind it,” he said.
Angolo, however, said she is not a thief and she does not touch what is not hers.
According to Hijarunguru, Angolo is making “nonsensical allegations” because she is jealous of Nauta who benefited from the sale of Epia Investment’s stake.
He said it was Nauta’s decision that the clinic be allocated a stake in Epia Investment.
“Why would people who are in their 80s even bother with the pathetic clinic, hand it over to young people,” Hijarunguru said.
For More News And Analysis About Namibia Follow Africa-Press
