Fishrot candidates march to parliament

Swapo yesterday said its members embroiled in the Fishrot debacle that led to their resignations from cabinet a fortnight ago will remain on their candidate list for tomorrow's National Assembly election.Former fisheries minister Bernhard Esau is now formally a suspect after he was arrested Saturday and controversially released a day later, while his former justice counterpart Sacky Shanghala has an arrest warrant issued against him.The latter is in Cape Town from where he has been communicating with Namibian authorities through his lawyer Appolos Shimakeleni.Shimakeleni told the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) through a letter yesterday that Shanghala will arrive in Windhoek today and that he was prepared to hand himself in if there was an arrest warrant against him.Also expected from Cape Town today is James Hatuikulipi, who is also prepared to hand himself over to police over the same kickback scandal that saw Shanghala and Esau fall on their own swords.The kickbacks were allegedly paid to the Namibian politicians and their cohorts in exchange for allocating fishing quotas to Icelandic seafood giant Samherji.ACC is adamant it has prima facie evidence of conspiracy, bribery, corruption, fraud, money laundering and tax evasion, which prompted it to seek the arrest of the Namibian politicians and businesses persons linked to Samherji's alleged N$150 million kickback scandal.Swapo spokesperson Hilma Nicanor said at a media conference yesterday that Shanghala and Esau, as well as convicted felons Tobie Aupindi and Katrina Hanse-Himarwa would remain on the party's parliamentary candidate list. Esau and Shanghala are at number 33 and 53 on the party list respectively, and are likely to make it to the National Assembly. Aupindi is at 29 and Hanse-Himarwa at 82.Nicanor yesterday said the party's parliamentary list that had been submitted to Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) will not be interfered with.“The entire nation is aware of what is prevailing out there. We are law-abiding citizens of this great country, we do not condone corruption in this country. The Swapo party has got its list and it was submitted to the ECN. So now is not our business to try and interfere. ECN has taken and accepted the lists,” said Nicanor. Walk the talk Political analyst graham Hopwood believes if zero tolerance for corruption is to mean anything then President Hage Geingob should remove all those convicted of corruption or facing serious allegations of such from the party.“Or institute an official inquiry into the allocation of fishing quotas and rights headed by a judge and make public all the ministers' declarations of interests and assets and implement the Whistle-blower Protection Act which was passed more than two years ago but never operationalised,” Hopwood said. Currently ministers' declaration of interests and assets are only made directly to the president.Hopwood also believes that to convince the nation of his commitment to fighting corruption, Geingob should establish a public beneficial ownership register for all extractive industries, namely mining, oil, gas, and fisheries.“Ensure a world-class, state of the art access to information law is introduced in parliament in the near future. Much more can be done to fight corruption but these are six steps that would demonstrate commitment rather than buck-passing,” he said. Constitutional expert Professor Nico Horn believes Swapo has double standards and is contradicted itself.He said it is not enough for the party to say everybody is innocent until proven guilty but believes the party should deal with these issues in light of the resignations of these implicated ministers. “I think of the way the president acted… he was very lenient with them but he expected them to resign because of the image of the party in the election. The president also agrees that they are innocent until proven guilty but nevertheless because of the cloud over their heads, it is best for him and the party that they resign from cabinet. Now shouldn't the same process have been followed by the party caucus who decides on the composition of the list of members of parliament,” Horn said. Passing the buck Geingob on Saturday criticised international media, especially the Icelandic press, for what he said is an attempt to influence the outcome of tomorrow's Presidential and National Assembly elections, by exposing how Namibian, Angolan and Icelandic officials were allegedly paid bribes in return for horse mackerel quotas.According to him recent media reports implicating his cabinet ministers in the Fishrot scandal is a deliberate and well-orchestrated effort by sections of the media to publish certain articles on corruption to coincide with this week's election.“I said we are practicing democracy, not to please America. Same with corruption, we are not fighting corruption to please anybody. And definitely we will take action. We talk about processes and systems.He said Iceland must investigate their 'corrupters' and stop putting blame on Namibia, which is an African country. “Iceland is attacking us. It's because [we are an] African country. Instead of talking about the corrupter, where did the money come from? Now they are already shifting blame… to a 'corrupt African country',” he said.The ACC over the weekend that in terms of its investigation in the Fishrot debacle, which led to the resignations of Esau as fisheries minister and Shanghala and justice minister, “the cumulative evidence, either real or circumstantial, testifies to an apparent well-calculated strategy meant to legalise a corruption scheme”.“The ACC's investigations reveal that companies owned by some of the suspects or proxies were used as conduit to facilitate payments of millions of dollars into other bank accounts of companies linked to the suspects.” The evidence in this regard, the ACC said, has been shared with the Office of the Prosecutor-General to consider initiating civil proceedings against the assets of those involved, in terms of Prevention of Organised Crime Act (POCA).jemima@namibiansun.com JEMIMA BEUKES

Fishrot candidates march to parliament

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Namibian Sun 2025-04-30

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Fishrot candidates march to parliament

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Namibian Sun 2025-04-30

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