Kora saga: Parties sought secret proceedings

WINDHOEK - Parties involved in the legal battle to recover more than N$22.7 million of the Kora All-Africa Music Awards sought for secrecy in order to seek a settlement in the matter.

The Namibian Tourism Board (NTB) filed a lawsuit against Mundial Telecom Sarl in 2016 in an attempt to recover money that was to be spent on hosting the Kora music awards in 2016, which never took place. 
The case, which was on the judicial online portal since 2016, has since been marked in camera and has now been removed, meaning the media and members of the public have no access to its proceedings. 
The spokesperson in the Office of the Judiciary, Ockert Jansen yesterday clarified that the parties involved in the matter wanted the court proceedings to take place in camera. 

 “The parties in this matter had expressed such wish to the presiding judge whilst engaged in settlement discussions,” explained Jansen.

He further added that parties engaged in litigation are entitled when engaged in settlement discussions to keep aspects of those discussions a secret, including details of any agreement that may be reached. 
The NTB launched legal action against Ernest Adjovi, Mundial Telecom, which is based in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, and businessman Tonata Shiimi in September 2016, for allegedly swindling the tourism body out of US$1.5 million (N$22.7 million - current exchange rate) in public funds at the end of 2015.

New Era reported at the time that NTB paid the money to Mundial Telecom at the end of 2015. 
The agreement was that the company would provide a tourism promotion package to the NTB connected to the Kora awards ceremony, which was supposed to be held in Namibia in March 2016.
The ceremony, however, did not take place as scheduled, while Adjovi’s company failed to pay back the money to the NTB.