Sisa’s account on what happened with and to the millions and the Swapo Party

In summary, Sisa Namandje says:

• he did not realize that the payment of N$2.5 million and N$15 million came from Fishcor and had anything to do with “Government Objectives
• that the N$5 million made by a private company Esja Mermaria had nothing to do with Fishcor or Government.
• He is not aware to this date whether or not Fishcor’s internal processes and procedures were followed in making the queried payments.

N$16m paid in February 2012 was done after Mr Henock Nantanga and Mr Rodgers Kauta (a legal practitioner no longer in practice) opened a file with his office

• Mr Nantanga consulted later and had in his possession a quota usage agreement (or Invoices) between Yucor Investments (‘Yucor’), a joint venture company in the process of being registered.
• Yucor belonged to the SWAPO Youth League and was part of the Yucor Joint Venture through one of its companies.
• He said he was told that the Minister of Fisheries Bernard Esau had issued directives that the new fishing right holders must form joint ventures made up of five Individual right holders for purposes of fishing quota allocations.
• He said he was advised that fishing quotas will be allocated to the joint ventures only and not directly to the individual right holders. He was made to understand that Yucor was one of such joint venture company comprised of five companies, including a company in which the SWAPO Party Youth League had an interest.
• He discovered that the invoices showed that Esja had bought quotas from the joint venture Yucor at a quota usage amount of N$16 million.
• When he asked who Esja was, he was told by Mr Nantanga that it was a Namibian registered company established by an international company involved in the fishing industry as an operator, in other words, a company that simply operates fishing vessels and did not have fishing rights or quotas.
• It was explained that First National Bank was still busy opening a bank account for Yucor and the company registration documents were also still being worked on by auditors.
• He was therefore informed that Yucor had decided that the N$16 million as quota usage fee to Yucor must be deposited in Sisa Namandje & Co.’s trust account while waiting for the opening of Yucor’s FNB account.
• The law firm then dealt with the funds on the client’s instructions. How the funds were disbursed and used is a matter directly at the heart of attorney/client privilege and confidentiality and the law firm is thus under no obligation to disclose such privileged information as advised by counsel.
• To this date, Namandje said he has no knowledge if these funds had anything to do with Fishcor nor does he have knowledge if same have anything to do what he now understands to be “Government Objectives”, or if these funds where not supposed to be paid to his firm’s trust account for and on behalf of their client, or that same is public funds, he would not have known at the time.
• He said before his consultation with Mr Nantanga it appeared Esja had already paid the amount of N$16 million into his trust account without the law firm accepting the mandate. This is not strange or unusual. The trust account details were at the time freely available and also appeared on our law firm’s letterheads at that time.
• He said Mr Nantanga gave him a telephone number of Esja if he wanted to send the company profile since they are a big company and may need legal services. He then sent his law firm’s profile to Esja, hoping that they could engage for legal services.
• Namandje said based on his consultation with Mr Nantanga and his own assessment of Esja, he became aware that Esja was legitimately conducting business in Namibia as a fishing operator.
• Based on the amount Esja paid to Yucor (N$16 million) and the fact that the company (Esja) is owned by an International company, Namandje obtained at the time necessary details that Esja was legitimately conducting business in Namibia and that it was a wealthy company. This information was enough to understand how it and its associated companies make their money in Namibia as fishing operators.
• Namandje says since he never looked at trust bank statements at the time, he could not personally verify who the actual depositor of the N$16 million was. He just assumed at the time it was Esja as he was told.