Iuze Mukube
Businessman Malakia Elindi on Monday, during his bail application, firmly denied having any personal dealings or association with some of his co-accused in the high-profile Namcor corruption scandal.
Elindi distanced himself from the former Namcor executives Immanuel Mulunga, Cornelius Willemse, Jennifer Hamukwaya, Panduleni Hamukwaya and Leo Nandago Stefanus.
He stressed that although he is implicated in the matter, any involvement he had was purely business-related and independent of conspiracy or committing unlawful activities with several of the other accused.
He denied having any other relationship with Mulunga apart from them being from the same village of Omuntele in Oshikoto region.
He further distanced himself from the allegation that he induced Willemse and Jennifer with an amount of N$2.5 million for the smooth purchase of nine service stations.
Elindi claimed he had no friendship with the two apart from knowing that they were Namcor employees.
He added that, as for Panduleni, he only knew that he and his brother Peter Elindi were in Cuba.
He stated that Victor Malema, the fugitive implicated in this matter, is his sister-in-law’s nephew.
As for Stefanus, Elindi said he only knew him when he appeared in court and not prior to that.
The State stood firmly on the version that there was an orchestrated scheme involving fraud, money laundering and other unlawful activities among those charged.
State advocate Menencia Hinda told Elindi that he was not in any position to sell anything to Namcor because Enercon was not the owner of the assets that were sold, as they belonged to the defence ministry.
This followed contention on what exactly Enercon sold to Namcor if they had an agreement already with the ministry.
Elindi responded that rights, interests and titles were sought for Namcor to be the exclusive fuel supplier to the defence ministry.
However, Enercon still continued to supply fuel to the ministry.
There was also contention as to whether those assets, including, as stated by Elindi, the home base fuel stations in the ministry, were in the ownership of the defence ministry as per the 2016 agreement or Enercon.
The matter continues in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court, presided over by Magistrate Linus Samunzala.