Activist Dimbulukeni Nauyoma told Eagle FM on Thursday that some of the cases the Anti-Corruption Commission director-general Paulus Noa said he is not aware of is in the commission’s system.
Nauyoma was responding to Noa’s who had responded to a petition handed over to him on 9 December 2019.
The petition lists about 14 corruption cases or perceived corruption cases and demanded answers from Noa.
In his response, Noa said that the petitioners do not understand how the Anti-Corruption Act works and that not every criminal case should be investigated by the commission.
Noa also said that Nauyoma was being driven by ulterior motives other than the fight to end corruption.
In response, Nauyoma said indeed they were pushed by the ulterior motive to see that all those who are corrupt should be behind bars.
Nauyoma quoted the case of the defence minister Penda ya Ndakolo who spent months staying in a hotel and incurred a huge bill that had to be settled by the government.
What Ya Ndakolo did, Nauyoma said, is administrative corruption which the ACC and Noa should have dealt with. He also said that when Noa was appointed as the ACC boss, he stayed in private accommodation for about three months, but he alerted administrators to deduct from his salary.
Nauyoma said corruption is using one’s office to benefit a person ahead of others. He added that if one benefits directly or is unable to deliver a service because one would have embezzled money it is corruption.
“The whole confusion comes in when they treat the Ya Ndakolo case as administrative corruption but if it’s someone like Dimbulukeni it becomes a criminal matter. The confusion also comes when Noa can decide whether to prosecute a person or not. We cannot have a situation where one man can decide,” Nauyoma said.
According to Nauyoma, Namibia is a very small country and people are related to each other. Because of this, as activists, they submitted reforms to have a board that oversees Noa’s decisions.
However, Nauyoma said that their proposal has been sitting with Noa for the past five years now.
Noa also challenged Nauyoma and his team to acquaint themselves with the Anti-Corruption Commission but Nauyoma said they asked Noa about the GIPF missing N$600m as a deliberate decision for the ACC director-general to be open.
“We knew that (Inspector-General Sebastian) Ndeitunga has the answers. And remember that Noa has been crucified as a person and not an institution. In other words, we were trying to shield but in his unwiseness (sic), he tried to attack us,” Nauyoma said.
Asked why they could not just go to Ndeitunga, Nauyoma said: “It was important for Noa to put it on record that it was not within his jurisdiction. We want Noa to clear the air. That is why we have dumped him with everything (sic).”
On the call for Noa’s resignation, Nauyoma said that they were taking it from Noa himself who said that he would not take up another term.
“Of course, we don’t want another five years of misery,” Nauyoma said.
Asked if Noa’s resignation would end corruption, Nauyoma said they would see strategic intervention and seriousness of action in terms of corrupt activities that have been happening crippling public sector.
According to Nauyoma, one can say that Noa is blocking cases because he has been sitting on a proposal for reforms for five years.
On whether as activists, they were selective on the cases they demand answers for, Nauyoma said that even if it’s my father who is corrupt tomorrow or even its Job Amupanda, we would act.
“We wake up to message that say why are we not acting on the Sam Nujoma era. Imagine that the GIPF case happened when I was about 10 years. Of course, we look at cases and ask ourselves whether then case affected many people,” he said.
