Martin Endjala
Swapo party Windhoek Rural District coordinator, John Elago has dismissed fraud claims made against him by a pastor.
Agnes Simon, the leader of the Poverty Eradication Ministry in Groot Aub, accused Elago of property fraud.
Elago described the claim as untrue.
“I want to make it clear to the public that I did not defraud her. How can I defraud her when it is my property? The property is in my name and it was she who actually wanted to knock me out off my property by going to the City of Windhoek and claiming that the property she was occupying was the wrong one and that I must come to sign it into her name while she has not finished paying it off as we agreed,” argued Elago.
Simon approached the High Court in June, accusing Elago of defrauding her of a property she purchased in 2021 from Elago in Groot Aub, south of Windhoek. She is seeking a court order directing Elago to obtain a police declaration regarding the property’s change of ownership.
Elago explained that the property was sold for N$275 000 in 2021.
The two entered into a written agreement to purchase the property.
Simon paid a deposit of N$200 000, and both parties agreed that the remaining amount would be paid in agreed-upon instalments.
According to Elago, the conflict between the two parties is a private matter and has nothing to do with his political position or party.
“I worked hard for this property; it is not a Swapo thing; I invested all my money for the day of tomorrow,” he said.
According to Elago, Simon has been threatening to take him to court and demanding that he sign the deed of sale without her paying off the rest of the money she owes him.
“She sends me demands and threats, to the point where my legal team, out of goodwill, decided to sit down and listen to what she wanted. She demanded N$20 000 from us to cover her legal costs, which we agreed to pay in two months,” he said.
Furthermore, Elago said Simon demanded an additional N$20 000 for the trauma she experienced. His legal team decided that it was best to go to court because she would keep asking for more.
Elago added that after Simon renovated the building, she started occupying it without finalising the deed of sale and without paying rent for the past two years.
On the police declaration issue, Elago stated that, given the agreement already in place, there is no need for one.
He said Simon wants a police declaration for a separate erf.
“This basically means she wants my other property. She is claiming that when she went to the CoW, the number on the original agreement differed, and therefore, she wants a police declaration, but she can’t cancel the original agreement. I am not a lawyer, but how do you make an agreement on top of another one?” argued Elago.
Elago said he did not intend to sell the property, but she approached him to buy it because her land was in the bushes.
He decided to help her by selling it without doing any valuation.
According to court documents, Simon claims she completed the payments in 19 months, finishing in September 2023.
She said that Elago sold the property under a different name nine years ago, according to municipal records.
She was told the discrepancy with the erf needed to be rectified on the agreement, accompanied by a declaration that would allow the city to register the property under her name, but she claimed Elago refused.
“The Groot Aub property was intended for business purposes. I purchased it to renovate into a guesthouse and had to spend additional money on extensive renovations,” she said in a local daily paper on Tuesday.
The case was postponed to August 23, as neither Elago nor a representative from the city showed up on July 26.
