National Unity Democratic Organisation (Nudo) Secretary General Josef Kauandenge has hailed the country’s anti-graft agency for its “renewed aggression” after serving a summons to South African lawyer Tembeka Ngcukaitobi to explain the N$50 000 that was paid to him in October 2018 from National Fishing Corporation of Namibia (Fishcor).
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) served Ngcukaitobi, who is representing Namibians implicated in the Fishrot scandal, with a summons on Wednesday last week while in the Windhoek High Court.
“I would like to express our sincere appreciation to the ACC and the Namibian Police for having developed strong muscles by arresting those implicated in the now-famous Fishrot case,” Kauandenge said last week.
“However, we are asking the net to be widened to also include those in the high echelons of power. We hold the belief that those implicated could not have acted alone at all, as the deepness and the entrenchment of the scandal could not have been perpetuated by only those implicated alone.”
Secretary to Cabinet George Simataa late on Thursday explained that the reported N$50 000 paid to Ngcukaitobi was for his services during the 2018 second national land conference, where the charismatic public speaker and activist delivered a research paper.
“For the sake of convenience, it was agreed that state-owned companies should provide their assistance directly to the conference, including the payments of service providers and individuals that will deliver their services to the land conference.”
Simataa said Fishcor also provided financial assistance towards the payment of the production of conference materials, tickets and accommodation, as well as per diems for the international guest speakers, such as US-based Nigerian academic Dr Joseph Okpaku and others who delivered research papers at the conference.
Furthermore, Kauandenge called on the ACC to investigate other sectors of the country’s economy.
“I call upon the ACC to investigate the mining and our diamond sectors. Surely, the Namibian political system has and continues to create an elitist society, where a selected few are getting richer and richer at the expense of poor Namibians,” he said.
– ktjitemisa@nepc.com.na