Iuze Mukube

The Fishing Corporation of Namibia’s (Fishcor) appeal lodged in the Supreme Court of Namibia to allow a fugitive lawyer linked to the fishrot corruption and fraud scandal to be allowed to present evidence through video link has succeeded.

The appeal follows a High Court judgement that refused to permit Fishcor to present evidence of Maren de Klerk, currently in South Africa, via video link in its trial action against the respondents.

The respondents cited were African Selection Fishing (Namibia), SeaFlower Pelagic Processing, Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Minister of Public Enterprises and the government.

The High Court ruled that Fishcor failed to show that hearing the evidence of De Klerk’s by video would serve the interests of, particularly because he was a fugitive from justice. The court of appeal ruled that De Klerk is not a party to the trial action and does not stand to benefit from the proceedings, even if he has a warrant for his arrest.

“He is instead a witness willing to testify in the proceedings on an aspect which would, on the pleadings, be crucial to Fishcor’s potential success in those proceedings,” stated justice of appeal Elton Hoff in concurrence of justices Dave Smuts and Hannelie Prinsloo. Hoff added that the administration of justice would not be brought into dispute if the lawyer was permitted to give evidence via video link, particularly given the public interest in receiving evidence of potential corruption on a massive scale.

He added that the refusal by the High Court did not assist the normal processes of the law and could only have potentially denied Fishcor evidence crucial to its cause. “The trial judge’s ability to assess credibility would not be unduly hindered if that witness is not ‘some ten feet away in the witness box’.”

Briefly, Fishcor had instituted an action against the respondents, seeking to set aside a scheme of interrelated agreements involving Fishcor and the African Selection Fishing (Namibia) and SeaFlower Pelagic Processing.

The primary purpose was that Fishcor would make available 50 000 metric tonnes (mt) every year of its horse mackerel quota for 15 years to the SeaFlower Pelagic Processing. The court documents read that Fishcor claimed that those agreements arose and have their origin in a corrupt environment and formed part of a corrupt scheme and formed a central component of what has become widely known as the ‘Fishrot scandal’.

According to Fishcor, the alleged corrupt activities are estimated to involve unlawful appropriation of around N$2 billion in revenue from the Namibian fishing industry. Therefore, the application refused by the High Court was lodged on the claim that De Klerk would be a crucial witness in establishing its case against the respondents. It’s against this background; the appeal succeeded. Fishcor was granted leave to lead the evidence of De Klerk at the trial of this matter by way of video link, subject to such directions to be given by the trial judge and the costs of the video link would be borne by Fishcor. -mukubeiuze@gmail.com

Photo: Heather Erdmann