The fraud and corruption trial of former head of the Roads Contractor Company (RCC), Kelly Nghixulifwa and two of his business associates Anna Ndoroma and Hafeni Nginamwaami, is scheduled to resume on 30 March next year with a status hearing.
It will continue from 25 to 29 July, from 8 to 19 August and from 19 to 23 September.
The trial has been besieged by delays since it was supposed to start in 2016, and finally got off the ground in November last year when all three accused pleaded not guilty to all charges.
They are facing charges of fraud and contravening the Anti-Corruption Act.
At the centre of the matter is a loan of N$4.8 million that Nghixulifwa allegedly secured for Ae//Gams Engineering to purchase Erf 10485 along Independence Avenue without declaring his interest in the company.
Nghixulifwa, who resigned after the ambitious supposed construction of B1 City opposite the Katutura Hospital went belly-up, is facing 11 charges of fraud and contravening the Anti-Corruption Act, while Ndoroma faces four counts and Nginamwaami also four counts.
Nghixulifwa lost a battle in which he wanted the court to quash eight of the charges as unconstitutional. Windhoek High Court Judge Christie Liebenberg dismissed his challenge, while he was also unsuccessful with his appeal against Liebenberg’s ruling in the Supreme Court. The trial further suffered delays with several absences of the accused due to illness.
Count one concerns a contravention of the Anti-Corruption Act by corruptly using an office or position for gratification, together with the alternatives for fraud and theft in relation to the B1 City project.
Counts two and three relate to fraud, while count four deals with a contravention of the Roads Contractor Company Act by failing to disclose relations in contracts, also in relation to B1 City.
Count five is about contravening the Anti-Corruption Act, and deals with using, holding, receiving or concealing gratification in relation to an offence, or alternatively using property obtained from gratification on B1 City.
Count six deals with contravening the Anti-Corruption Act by corruptly using an office or position for gratification in relation to Cradle Investments.
Count seven is contravening the Anti-Corruption Act by conspiring with another to commit an offence of corruption, alternatively theft.
Count eight is contravening the Roads Contractor Company Act by failing to disclose relations in contracts in respect of Cradle Investments, while count nine relates to contravening the Anti-Corruption Act for corruptly using an office or position for gratification by the payment of Brian Nalisa’s FNB Home Loan mortgage arrears with RCC money, alternatively theft.
Count 10 relates to fraud, alternatively theft by false pretences or theft for allegedly duping Murray & Roberts and/or Rudiger Saunderson that Cradle Investments acted as project facilitator for the construction of the RCC head office, and was entitled to a commission of N$150 000.
Ndoroma and Nginamwaami, for their part, face counts two, five, seven and 10.
In the indictment, the State alleges that Nghixulifwa was at all relevant times an employee of the RCC, and therefore a public officer as defined in the Anti-Corruption Act.
It also states that Nghixulifwa was a ‘covert’ shareholder in Ae//Gams Engineering through Ndoroma, and that Ndoroma and Nginamwaami through their entities acted in concert or with a common purpose to commit the offences.
Silas Kishi-Shikumu is representing Ndoroma, Trevor Brockerhoff represents Nginamwaami and Hezekiel Iipinge represents the State.
The trial is before judge Christie Liebenberg, and the accused are all on bail.