More lies emerge on Phala Phala
GOVERNMENT entities dealing with the Phala Phala investigation lied over communications with their Namibian counterparts.
Independent Media can today reveal that our report on the legal letter sent to the Department of Justice on July 23, 2020, asking for mutual assistance was swept under the rug.
We can exclusively reveal the contents of the letter from the Justice Ministry in Namibia to South African Justice Minister Ronald Lamola. This comes despite his spokesperson Chrispin Phiri saying in June 2022: “We can categorically state that, to date, there is no official record of this specific request.”
The letter, dated July 23, 2020, states that it is a “request for mutual legal assistance in a criminal matter from the Republic of South Africa: suspected money laundering offences in contravention of the prevention of the Organised Crime Act”.
It named the alleged mastermind of the farm robbery, Imanuwela David, and his accomplices, Petrus Afrikaner and Erkki Shikongo, as the “subjects”. These were some of the five men named by former spy boss Arthur Fraser when he opened a case of defeating the ends of justice, kidnapping and torture against President Cyril Ramaphosa and the head of his Presidential Protection Service, General Wally Rhoode, as the Namibians who stole an undisclosed amount of US dollars from the president’s farm.
The letter said the three men “made electronic fund transfers to various individuals’ bank accounts in Namibia”.
It also revealed EFT payments they made into Namibian bank accounts: Shikongo transferred:
♦ N$1 000 000 (R1m) from his South African account on March 11, 2020.
♦ N$500000 (R500000) to an account held by Tafelelo Technologies.
♦ N$110 000 on March 6, 2020, to an account held in the name of Immanuel Shaduka.
♦ N$233 700 between April and May 2020 into an account held in the name of Ndapandula Aipanda.
♦ Afrikaner transferred:
♦ N$500 000 on February 26, 2020, into an account held in the name of Lovisa Kapenangolo.
♦ N$20 000 on March 25, 2020, into an account held by Hafeni Avula. ¡ N$1200000 into an account held in the name of Avula.
♦ N$50 000 into an account held in the name of Hilaraia Ndapewa between February 19 and June 11, 2020.
♦ N$2900000 between March 11 and 23, 2020, into an account held in the name of Clement Shikongo.
♦ N$500000 into an account held by Ana Bela on March 23, 2020.
♦ David transferred:
♦ N$86 500 into an account held in the name of Ndapandula Aipanda.
The letter also revealed withdrawals the men made in Namibia using different references, including Three Jackpots and Amandla Guest House. It also said that some of “the beneficiaries that received money purchased properties”.
The letter stated that “in the light of the above investigations, the Namibian Police Force requests mutual legal assistance through your ministry, from the Republic of South Africa, to obtain the following listed evidential information”:
♦ Obtain opening account documents and bank statements for accounts of Shikongo, Afrikaner and David in South Africa for the period December 1, 2019 to July 22, 2020.
♦ The relevant South African authorities to provide information on the origin of the funds EFTD to Namibia.
♦ The relevant South African authorities to provide information on whether the subjects have committed felonies. If they committed felonies in South Africa kindly also provide us with the pertinent documents.
♦ The relevant South African authorities are to provide an affidavit indicating any employment, income and salary information as well as any business interest the subjects may have.
But this letter for mutual legal assistance was ignored and its existence later denied by the South African authorities.
A former employee of the Department of Justice said: “This request was deliberately ignored to protect President Cyril Ramaphosa from the Phala Phala farm robbery scandal. The letter explicitly states that the men committed theft in South Africa and they have been transferring huge sums of money into Namibian bank accounts. Any government that is serious about fighting crime should have jumped on this request.”
Phiri on Friday tried to justify the move by saying that officials in the department did not know who these men were as no case had been opened against them in South Africa. He later changed his tune to say the letter was filed under Afrikaner, who is less known of the five men implicated in the theft.
He denied that the letter was deliberately ignored to obscure the scandal and protect Ramaphosa. “It is not correct that there was no response from South Africa on the requested mutual legal assistance in the case involving Mr David. The Central Authority of the Republic of South Africa has transmitted correspondence through the diplomatic channels to set the record straight with the Namibian authorities.”
But the request seen by the Independent Media paints a different picture.
The Namibian prosecutor-general, Martha Imalwa, confirmed in June last year that she had advised the local police to seek mutual legal assistance from South Africa.
“They wanted my office to prepare a preservation order, but there was some outstanding information missing from South Africa and I advised them to contact their South African counterparts for these missing details, but … they came back empty-handed,” Imalwa said.