Nuusita Ashipala
Eenhana-Mennonite pastor Pedro Marcelino Moussongela has been convicted of seven counts and is due to be sentenced on Wednesday on counts of fraud, forgery and uttering, and employing foreign nationals without work permits at his Mennonite community school at Omafo.
State prosecutor Brighton Sililo Mwala asked the court to sentence Moussongela to at least five years for each of the first three counts and N$4,000 or 12 months on each of the four counts of employing foreign nationals without a work permit.
Moussongela is alleged to have registered Angolan national children as his own with the Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration and declared their mothers to be deceased, and as such was a single parent.
Moussongela has pleaded guilty to all seven counts. He informed the court he registered the children so that they could study in Namibia.
Besides the cases at Eenhana, in Windhoek Mousongela faces cases of human trafficking of four of his children to England and six stepchildren to South Africa, as well as rape and incest. He has further cases of human trafficking, rape and abortion at Ondangwa as well as human trafficking, fraud and forgery cases pending against him in Ohangwena Region.
Moussongela and his wife Ndamononghenda Penehafo Pedro both pleaded to the court for a lenient sentence, citing reasons of Moussongela being a family man and sole breadwinner and a caretaker of about 160 orphans.
However, prosecutor Mwala objected, as there was no evidence indicating he is the caretaker of orphans.
Mwala was adamant that although Moussongela was a breadwinner, it should not be a deterrence to punish him because the wife is still receiving proceeds from the school and being relatively young, at 33, she could still find or create employment for herself.
Stealing the show in court on Friday was human rights activist Phil ya Nangolo, who testified for the State. He asked the court to punish Moussongela severely and that he be dealt with the same way Christians deal with the devil.
A previously calm Moussongela was obviously agitated and stood up after being seated for a while, after the activist had charged that the crimes he committed were not expected from a man who wore a priest’s garment and was considered holy.
“He is an enemy of mankind. He victimized some of the weakest members of society, including women and children … you cannot bring back the wolf to the sheep, you cannot put a wolf in charge of the sheep because there would be no sheep left,” said Ya Nangolo sternly.
Moussongela has been in custody since last year June 24, after he was arraigned for the Ondangwa cases where his bail hearing has been ongoing since August last year.
He is currently on bail of N$30,000 for the charges he faces in Windhoek.