Niël Terblancé
The arrest of Jennifer Comalie, the board chairperson of the Namibian Petroleum Corporation on Monday, and the resulting debacle surrounding the matter, has revealed that state organs or certain parts of such institutions has been captured and that state-owned companies are run by people who can be equated to gangsters.
The shocking threat of all out gangsterism in the top tiers of Namcor’s management was laid bare in a letter dated 28 March 2023 and written by the Minister of Finance and Public Enterprises, Ipumbu Shiimi, and addressed to the Inspector General of the Namibian Police, Lieutenant General Joseph Shikongo.
In the letter Shiimi requests the NamPol’s commander to conduct a security threat assessment with regard to Comalie.
According to Shiimi’s letter, Comalie approached both him and the Minister of Mines and Energy, Tom Alweendo, a few weeks ago to schedule an urgent meeting with them
“During the meeting she told us that a close relative of hers informed her that some people are not happy with what she is doing at Namcor and these people will take unspecified actions against her,” Shiimi’s letter reads.
According to Shiimi’s letter, both he and Alweendo advised her to closely monitor the situation and inform them if she observed any strange activities with the aim to inform the police. No further action was however taken and on Monday Comali must have been in fear for her life when she was called out of board meeting and ordered to unlock her official vehicle for members of the police to go ahead with a search while the relevant authorities did not consider her warning as serious enough and thereby failing to act decisively.
The number of examples of Namibian women being killed or maimed after asking for assistance and trying to warn authorities that they are in danger, are too many to count.
The fact that Shiimi requested a security threat assessment from the police on the same day that Comalie appeared in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court on drug charges shows that he and his colleague from the energy ministry was a day late and dollar short.
In the meantime, the President of the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM), McHenry Venaani stated that it his intention as the official opposition in the National Assembly to invoke Parliamentary oversight of Namcor’s corporate governance by way of an investigation by the relevant parliamentary standing committee.
“The official opposition will put forward a motion to initiate a parliamentary investigation into what appears to be the mafia style corporate governance currently unfolding at Namcor,” Venaani wrote in a statement.
The PDM president also called on the Minister of Finance and Public Enterprises to suspend Immanuel Mulunga from his position as the Managing Director of Namcor by today (Thursday).
Also, on Tuesday General Shikongo ordered an immediate and thorough investigation into the person who provided members of the Drug Enforcement Division of the Namibian Police with the information that there was illicit drugs hidden in Comalie’s official vehicle.
“The matter is currently before court but my officers will investigate the entire case even the credibility of the informant. The truth will eventually be revealed. An arrest has been made and we all now have to allow for the judicial process to take its course,” Shikongo said
General Shikongo said that a thorough investigation will also be launched into the possible capture of state organs or parts thereof by unscrupulous people in powerful positions or officials if and when the relevant charges are laid with NamPol.
Advocate Richard Metcalfe said that recent events at Namcor appear to intimate that there exists an unscrupulous and dirty cabal within law enforcement entities who stoop to dirty tactics in the service of people with lots of money. “It is incomprehensible how the public is expected to swallow the narrative that a whistle blower who exposes apparent corruption is suddenly found with drugs,” he said.
According to Advocate Metcalfe it is high time for law enforcement agencies to be cleaned up.
“Our police services were once the most professional and effective in Africa.
It is a dangerous day when they allow themselves to become instruments of injustice for use by criminals,” he stated Advocate Metcalfe said that Monday’s events at the Namcor head office is beginning of the Namibian Police emulating the sad state of the police in South Africa.
After spending Monday night in police custody, Comalie appeared before a Windhoek magistrate on charges relating to the possession of illicit drugs on Tuesday afternoon and was subsequently released on bail of N$7 000.
