WINDHOEK – Prosecutor General Martha Imalwa yesterday confirmed she is scrutinising an Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) docket alleging the role supposedly played by ministers Katrina Hanse-Himarwa and Alpheus Naruseb in allocating a resettlement farm to Hanse-Himarwa’s son. The ACC annual report for the 2017-2018 financial year, tabled in the National Assembly by Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila on Wednesday this week, contains information that the commission forwarded the matter to the PG for a decision.
Denzil Tryane Hanse, then 24, was in 2015 allocated a resettlement farm unit in the Hardap Region, where his mother was previously a governor.
!Naruseb was lands minister at the time when Denzil applied for the land, while Hanse-Himarwa was Hardap governor and, by implication, the chairperson of the regional resettlement committee for Hardap.
The committee advises the Land Reform Advisory Commission on the allocation of commercial farmland. It also scrutinises applications on resettlement, and shortlists and recommends beneficiaries.
The committee also oversees the verification and allocation of farming units to avoid double allocations. It also investigates and resolves farming unit land disputes.
Imalwa yesterday confirmed to New Era upon inquiry that she received the docket from ACC, in which her office is requested whether or not there exists grounds for prosecuting Hanse-Himarwa and ǃNaruseb over the farm’s allocation.
“Yes, the docket is here but that doesn’t mean the said persons have committed any crime,” she said.
When asked when she will be finalising her decision, Imalwa said: “I do not answer to the media. The decision will be taken and you will know.”
Imalwa only received the docket on the 28th of March this year.
The ACC sent the docket twice to the PG’s office – on 16 September 2017 and 17 February 2018 – but it was on both occasions sent back to it for further investigation.
The two ministers are subjects of other separate investigations – both originating from the ACC.
Hanse-Himarwa is currently on a corruption trial in the Windhoek High Court where she stands accused of having removing names of beneficiaries from the mass housing project’s list in Mariental and replacing them with names of her relatives.
The minister is denying the allegations and said she is determined to prove her innocence.
The trial has since been postponed to June this year.
The PG has received a different request by ACC to decide whether or not to prosecute !Naruseb in a matter originating from his days as minister of works and transport.
ACC – on its own accord and on request by President Hage Geingob – investigated !Naruseb’s role, if any, in several high-profile controversies such as the cancelled N$7 billion airport tender, which government fought tooth and nail in a battle that was won in the Supreme Court.