Former magistrate Walter ‘Rooies’ Mostert is still nowhere to be found as police are still trying to trace him.

Mostert (62) was scheduled to make an appearance in Windhoek Regional Court on Monday for the commencement of his trial.

However, according to prosecutor Dominic Lisulo, Mostert, who escaped from police custody on 5 November last year, has not yet been traced. 

Mostert mysteriously vanished after having been dropped off at the Auas Hills hospital in Auasblick. 

He was receiving medical care at the hospital under police guard.

Inspector Reinhold Nenkavu was arrested in November last year, following the disappearance of Mostert. Nenkavu is free on bail.

Mostert was arrested on 1 May 2021, after he had returned to Namibia from South Africa, where he had been living for four years. The Anti-Corruption Commission has been looking for him since September 2018.

Mostert, alongside co-accused Joyline Kambatuku, Eveline Meroro and Joram Salomo are charged with counts under the Anti-Corruption Act and the Immigration Control Act, money laundering, extortion, fraud and attempting to defeat or obstruct the course of justice.

The State is alleging that the charges emanate from a period between 2012 and 2013 when Mostert worked in cahoots with his co-accused by assisting a South African family to obtain Namibian identity documents illegally. He allegedly furnished the ministry of home affairs with false documents that members of that family and their parents had been born at Usakos. 

In 2013, Mostert extorted N$90 000 from one Kosie Pieterse when he informed him that his family member was arrested for overstaying in Namibia after the visa had expired, alleges the prosecution. 

The prosecution is further alleging that Mostert fraudulently obtained another N$250 000 from Pieterse. He allegedly told Pieterse that the money would help with his application to acquire Namibian permanent residence.

During yesterday’s court proceedings before magistrate Mehluli Nyazo, the State, alongside defence lawyers Tjingairi Kaurivi and Petrie Theron, who are representing Meroro and Salomo, agreed for the trial to be separated and for the remaining accused to stand trial alone while the police trace the former judicial officer. 

The court granted the request and postponed the matter to 8 March for a new trial date to be set. 

-mamakali@nepc.com.na