Crunch time for Avid 7

In early 2005, Lazarus Kandara, CEO of Avid Investments and a well-known figure in ruling party circles, threatened to “spill the beans” by revealing the names of the people who helped him siphon N$30 million from the Social Security Commission (SSC).

On the evening of 24 August 2005 at around 20:30, in front of the Windhoek police station, in an incident still relived on social media platforms to this very day, Kandara apparently committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest.

Now, nearly 13 years later, the Windhoek High Court is expected to deliver judgement today in the Avid corruption trial, where seven accused have been in the dock since May 2014.

Among those who will be waiting with bated breath to hear their fate are two former Swapo National Assembly members Paulus Kapia and Ralph Blaauw.

They, together with Inez /Gâses, lawyers Otniel Podewiltz and Sharon Blaauw, Nico Josea and retired army brigadier Mathias Shiweda, are accused in the matter. But as the saying goes, 'dead men tell no tales', and inevitably the trial, at least for the accused, has been about placing all the blame on Kandara.

The state and the defence lawyers delivered their closing arguments at the beginning of the week.

Kapia is a former deputy works minister, while Ralph Blaauw is a former acting secretary-general of the National Youth Council (NYC).

Although the accused were indicted in 2008, the trial started in May 2014.

It is alleged the accused defrauded the SSC between December 2004 and August 2005 through misrepresentations used to persuade top managers at the commission to invest N$30 million with Avid, which was by all accounts, an inexperienced and dodgy asset management company.

The money was to have been invested in a fixed interest-bearing account for four months and then returned on 28 May 2005 with the accrued interest. However, the funds are still missing to this very day, while evidence suggests that some of the accused were handed large amounts of cash at the Kandara house.

Kandara's wife Christophine testified she first met some of the accused in 2005, after being told by her husband they would be visiting the house.

Christophine told the court she received between N$220 000 and N$240 000 from Josea after her husband, who was in South Africa at the time, had instructed her to accept the money from him.

According to her, she was then told by her husband to give Kapia, Blaauw and Podewiltz N$40 000 each, but only Blaauw and Podewiltz came to collect the money about five to ten minutes after Josea left her house.

“I gave Ralph Kapia N$40 000 and Shiweda only came to collect his money on Sunday. I did not give them Shiweda's money because my husband said he did not trust them with Shiweda's money,” Kandara's widow told the court.

She further said Josea presented her with a document to sign, confirming the transaction had taken place.

A line of attack was opened for the defence when the document was revealed in court and showed she had received N$300 000.

In 2005, /Gâses was the chairperson of the firm, while Podewiltz was a director, along with Kapia and Sharon Blaauw.

Shiweda is said to have been a shareholder, while it is alleged that Ralph Blaauw did the lobbying when the deal with the SSC was reached in January 2005.

The state has urged the court to convict the seven accused on all of the charges they are still facing, after they were discharged on some of the counts in August 2015.

The prosecution has attempted to weave together a sordid tale of greed and corruption, while placing Josea in a key role in terms of handling N$29.5 million of the N$30 million investment.

The state wants Josea convicted of theft and reckless or fraudulent business conduct.

Judge Christie Liebenberg has also been urged to convict Kapia of fraud and reckless or fraudulent business conduct, while /Gâses, Podewiltz and the Blaauw couple are under the gavel for alleged fraud and reckless or fraudulent business conduct.

The state also wants Shiweda to be convicted on the same charge.

The judgement will once again, inevitably, shine the spotlight onto the death of then man who is said to have been at the centre of the saga - Lazarus Kandara.

Among the extensive media coverage that accompanied his apparent suicide were reports of the possibility of a shot being fired from a little window facing the street on the staircase of the police station, suggesting an assassin.

It is alleged that Kandara shot himself in the chest while covered with a blanket he had been given permission to fetch at his home after his arrest.

He was wearing a red sweater, blue T-shirt, cream/white pyjama pants and brown leather sandals, after apparently showering and freshening up at his home, while his wife gave the police officers a meal.

Kandara had voluntarily agreed to appear before an inquiry that took place earlier in the day, but during the course of his testimony, he allegedly incriminated himself, and by the end of the afternoon session he was arrested by the police on charges of theft and fraud.

Deepening the mystery around his death was why, if he wanted to kill himself, and collected the gun at his home, did he not shoot himself immediately?

During the inquest hearing, his wife denied the pistol he allegedly shot himself with belonged to him, although he did possess a weapon.

Kandara was the founder of Avid and had according to evidence placed before then court recruited Kapia, /Gâses, Podewiltz, the Blaauw couple and Shiweda to become involved in the business.

In his absence, Kandara has been painted in court as the one who had manipulated the accused to make misrepresentations to the SSC, which did not want to have business dealings with him.

It was also alleged during the trial that the accused failed or did not bother to check the assurances, they say were given by Kandara about how the N$30 million investment with Avid would be handled.

They then conveyed these false assurances to the SSC.



FRED GOEIEMAN