Ex-magistrate argues that Damaseb is biased

WINDHOEKFRED GOEIEMAN
Former magistrate Peter Kavaongelwa has argued that Judge President Petrus Damaseb must recuse himself from hearing a N$100 000 lawsuit against him because he is biased.
Judgment in the matter, argued yesterday in the High Court, was reserved and is expected to be given by no later than September 24.
The former magistrate is facing a defamation case brought by Inspector-General of the Namibian police, Lieutenant-General Sebastian Ndeitunga. The initial amount of the lawsuit was N$1 million.
This follows allegations made by Kavaongelwa that Ndeitunga committed perjury during a disciplinary hearing, after which the former magistrate was fired.
The case stems from a phone call Ndeitunga received from Kavaongelwa in January 2006, who at that stage was still a presiding magistrate, requesting him to consider withdrawing fraud charges against lawyer, Arumugam Thambapilai.
Thambapilai had been arrested about a month before the phone call on charges of fraud for allegedly lodging fraudulent claims with the Motor Vehicle Accident (MVA) Fund on behalf of his clients. Ndeitunga said he reported Kavaongelwa's phone call to Prosecutor-General Martha Imalwa a few days later, asking her to ensure that Thambapilai's case would not land in front of Kavaongelwa. The former magistrate initially sued Ndeitunga, who later turned the tables on him and instituted his own defamation action.
In court yesterday, Kavaongelwa's lawyer Titus Mbaeva argued that Damaseb should recuse himself because he had showed biasness.
He claimed that Ndeitunga's lawyer, Andrew Corbett, and Damaseb had expressed annoyance with his client when he had argued unethical conduct by the presiding officer.
When Corbett had posed “speculative questions” to Kavaongelwa, the judge did not call him to order, according to Mbaeva.
It is further alleged that Corbett made unsubstantiated and insulting remarks about Kavaongelwa and Damaseb had allowed this to continue.
“The record speaks for itself on the issue of bias,” Mbaeva alleged and submitted his client has a reasonable fear of the judge being bias.
Corbett argued: “There is no specific detail of biasness in the record.”
“These are unfounded, reckless, and scandalous allegations against the judge,” he said, adding that the application was “frivolous and vexatious”.