The ruling in the legal battle for the Law Society of Namibia (LSN) to be allowed access to local lawyer Sisa Namandje’s law firm trust account has been postponed to August.
“The presiding judge will not be able to deliver due to medical reasons, as communicated to the judge president,” said judiciary’s spokesperson Ockert Jansen.
High Court Judge Herman Oosthuizen was scheduled to give a ruling on Friday in the search and seizure application by the LSN.
The ruling will now be delivered on 14 August.
LSN Namibia applied to the High Court for a search and seizure warrant to allow it to inspect the records of Namandje’s law firm Sisa Namandje & Co Inc trust account in relation to dubious transactions amounting to N$23 million.
Namandje has allegedly refused to cooperate with the law society, citing attorney-client privilege.
LSN director Margaretha Steinmann in her answering affidavit said Namandje has invoked attorney-client privilege to protect himself and prevent an inspection into the records of the firm’s trust account.
The transactions in question involve N$15 million paid on 1 December 2015 from state-owned Fishcor into Namandje’s trust account.
From this amount Namandje or his directors allegedly made payment amounting to N$2.1 million into the trust account of Van Der Westhuizen & Greeff on 3 December 2015.
A payment of N$7.6 million was made on 3 December 2015 to Baby Face Investments CC, a company owned by businessman Vaino Nghipondoka.
Again, on 3 December 2015, N$5.2 million was paid to Gwashihwemwa Family Trust where politician Armas Amukwiyu is a trustee under the trust.
The total of the above outward transfers comes to N$14.9 million, leaving a balance of N$60 000.
On 4 August 2017, Namandje’s firm trust received N$2.5 million from Fishcor.
From this amount, FIC did not observe any large payouts.
The third transaction of concern occurred on 28 August 2017 where N$5 million was paid to Namandje’s firm trust by Mermaria Seafood Namibia (Pty) Ltd. Following this transaction, a payout of N$4 million was directed to the account of one Gabriel Kandjengo on 28 August 2017.
Another payment of N$1.1 million was made to a Nedbank Home Loan account of Namandje.
According to court papers, a payment of N$1.4 million was deposited from Namandje’s trust account on 7 September 2017 to lawyer Sacky Kadhila-Amoomo.
The LSN claims the transactions were recorded in the manner that conceals the real depositor of the funds.
Thus, LSN believes the trust account may have been used to launder money, which is in violation of the requirements for the keeping of trust accounts. – mamakali@nepc.com.na