Andrew Kathindi
Judge Herman Oosthuizen on Wednesday postponed the case brought by the Law Society of Namibia (LSN) where it wants access to Sisa Namandje’s firm’s books to Thursday.
Namandje was represented by Advocate Raymond Heathcote while Uno Katjipuka-Sibolile represented the Law Society of Namibia.
“I will definitely not give a ruling tomorrow. The legality of the issue will take time,” said Judge Oosthuizen.
Uno Katjipuka-Sibolile argued that the Law Society must regulate lawyers in the public’s interest and that the only way that the Law Society could determine if Namandje’s trust account could have been used to launder money is by examining his firm’s books.
This comes after Namandje has refused to allow the law society access to his records, citing attorney-client privilege, but today, Katjipuka-Sibolile argued confidential and privileged information is not the same thing. “It was clear that he was never going to grant the law society inspection and the only way was to bring the matter to court,” said Katjipuka-Sibolile.
She added the matter will likely set a very dangerous precedent in the Law Society if Namandje’s books are not scrutinized.
Judge Oosthuizen said the issue that the court had with Council’s argument was that “Council out of their own motion on unqualified information (Aljazera’s Anatomy of a Bribe documentary) reasonably believes that (Namandje) was guilty of misconduct.”
Advocate Raymond argued that allowing access to Namandje’s books will be “a ransacking of the office.”
Namandje is believed to have used his firm’s trust account as a funnel to launder money for the Fishrot saga. This was initially brought to the attention of the Law Society after the airing of the Aljazeera documentary in which Namandje appears.
Again, the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) is believed to have tipped off the Law Society of suspicious transactions involving Namandje’s law firm trust account, which FIC picked up.
These transactions involve N$15 million paid on 1 December 2015 from State-owned fishing company, the National Fishing Corporation of Namibia (Fishcor), into Namandje’s trust account.
