SWAPO Party’s Kalahari and Zebra Holdings, Andrew Ndishishi, Ranga Haikali and Ralph Blaauw, as well as a group of businesswomen close to Justice Minister Pendukeni Ithana have emerged as the empowerment partners in Namibia Wildlife Resorts’ (NWR) out-contracting of seven state resorts around Windhoek and Swakop, an investigation by The Namibian showed.

A re-tracing of the administrative procedures implemented since 2006 in awarding so-called Public-Private Partnerships (P.P.P.) to Tungeni Africa (Pty), Prosperity Africa (Pty) and Reho Spa (Pty) also raised serious questions over the legality of handing over these resorts to BEE briefcase companies for periods of up to 100 years.

Tungeni, which company has been trying to force the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) to hand over a large tract of land around Windhoek’s main water reservoir of Von Bach to them to build a lodge and 240-house “lifestyle village”, had in fact set their company up a month before the P.P.P. policy was approved by Cabinet in June 2006.

Company documentation showed also a remarkable degree of coordination between actions taken by MET PS Kalumbi Shangula and NWR Managing Director Tobie Aupindi, as well as between other players such as Prosperity Africa’s Ranga Haikali and Andrew Ndishishi.

Aupindi has repeatedly denied any wrong-doing, but ran several ads subsequent to being interviewed on this subject in which NWR defended the controversial deals as “completely in line” with a Cabinet resolution on NWR’s controversial “turn-around strategy.”

At the same time, Aupindi’s SWAPO Youth League comrades have launched public attacks on MET Minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah and even President Hifikepunye Pohamba for allegedly “sabotaging” the NWR.

SPYL President Elijah Ngurare and MET PS Shangula however are both directors of SWAPO’s commercial arm Kalahari Holdings (Pty), which owns a 10 percent stake in the planned Daan Viljoen “medical tourism” development.

Another SWAPO-run company, Zebra Holdings which features prominent members of the so-called “Omusati Clique” among its shareholders, also has a 10 percent stake in this venture, company records showed.

Both Kalahari and Zebra hold their stakes in Daan Viljoen via Oryx Holdings, a company set up by former unionist Ranga Haikali and Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry Permanent Secretary Andrew Ndishishi a month before the NWR in August 2007 issued public calls for proposals.

Oryx in turn is a 20 percent shareholder in San Karros Lifestyle Safaris, which obtained rights (valid for the next 60 years) over the Daan Viljoen Game Park, 15 kilometers east of Windhoek. Daan Viljoen is to be turned into an exclusive “medical tourism facility” for Angolan clientele by health care insurer Prosperity Health’s tourism arm Prosperity Africa (Pty).

The biggest winner in the NWR BEE stakes is however Tungeni Africa, which company obtained 100-year rights over the Von Bach Dam’s tourism facilities (including two long-existing private ski clubs) and three of the four coastal campsites.

Tungeni’s share register showed that its is owned by Ithana’s close struggle comrade Tonata Itenge (40 percent), Namibia’s Ambassador to Austria Sakina Asipala, NamDeb MD Inge Zaamwani-Kamwi and Bank Windhoek director Gida Sekandi (10 percent each), as well as quanity surveyors Iyaloo Nangolo and Ian Oosthuizen (15 percent each).

Tungeni’s most recent financial statements note that one “Benni” (along with Sekandi and Zaamwani) still had to make their shareholder’s contributions. “Benni”, The Namibian was reliably informed, is Benni Kaulinge, son of Pendukeni Ithana-Iivula by former Information and Broadcasting Permanent Secretary Isaac Kaulinge.

Ithana previously employed Aupindi as her personal assistant while still Deputy Minister of Lands, Resettlement and Rehabilitation, and also owns a butchery (Ha-Na-NE CC) that obtained a no-bid contract to supply the NWR restaurants at their lodges in the Etosha Game Reserve with meat.

And Ralph Blaauw, still trail-awaiting in the Avid case, has emerged as the silent partner
with Polytech Registrar C.J. Jafta as the principal shareholders of the Reho Spa via Reho Spa (Pty), where company holds concessional rights valid for 50 years over the hot-water spring resort 90 kilometers south of Windhoek.

Aupindi in an interview denied that there was anything illegal about how the concessions for Daan Viljoen, the Reho Spa, the Von Bach Camp Site, as well as all the camp sites between Swakopmund and the Ugab River were awarded.

The adverts calling for proposals for taking over these resorts were “…widely advertised, even in your own newspaper” before the concessions were allocated, Aupindi said. He also claimed these were also posted on the NWR website, even though NWR did not have a functional website at the time.

The only ads that could be found in all the local newspapers between May and August 2007 – including The Namibian Today – showed that on Friday, 24 August 2007, this paper and the New Era carried an identical NWR ad (“Seeking for Partners”) that called for B.E.E. development proposals without specifying which NWR resorts or services were on offer.

On 28 August 2007, another “Seeking for Partners” ad was run, this time listing the resorts as Reho Spa, Shark Island, Von Bach Campsite and the West Coast Recreational Area, being the Mile 14, Jakkalsputz, Mile 72 and Mile 108 campsites.

Interested parties had to submit all proof of “relevant capacity, resources and experience”, proof of registration, an Affirmative Action Compliance certificate as well as a “detailed description of previous involvement and experience in the hospitality industry,” the ad read.

“Black Economic Empowerment Companies are encouraged to apply. Only short-listed bidders [who meet the pre-qualifying criteria] will be invited to submit detailed proposals,” the ad stated.

The closing date was a working day later, viz. Friday 31 August 2007. Asked if this did not amount to the NWR manipulating the process so that only persons or companies with advance knowledge of the so-called “Public-Private Partnerships” stood any chance of preparing a successful bid, both Shangula and Aupindi in separate interviews denied that this was the case.

Company records however show that some companies did however appear to inside knowledge of the then still-secret opportunities – in the case of Tungeni, at least three weeks before Cabinet had approved the NWR’s turn-around strategy and its policy of implementing Public-Private Partnerships on 22 June 2006.

Tungeni’s records show it was formed from an off-the-shelf company called Mandy Investments 156 (Pty) on 1 June 2006, a month before the public announcement of the PPPs by way of the weekly Cabinet Press Release was made on 5 July 2007.

Apart from allocating shares and appointing directors by June 14th, the company remained dormant for a year until 17 July 2008, when it signed its agreement with the NWR, a copy of its contract showed.

Meanwhile, Ndishishi and Haikali’s vehicle Oryx Investments (Pty) was formed exactly a year later on 1 June 2007, when Ranga Haikali and Andrew Ndishishi bought an off-the-shelf company called Starting Right 103 from auditing firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC).

A year later, in July 2008, Prosperity Africa MD Kobus Struwig bought Starting Right 134, another off-the-shelf company from PWC, and transferred 20 percent of the shares in this company to Oryx.

While Haikali has resigned as director from Oryx, its records show that Ndishishi and two former junior colleagues of his at the Ministry of Trade and Industry officials, viz. Etuna Nashima and Willem Nekwiyu now make up its board.

None have filed any written permission with the Registrar of Companies’ Office to be involved in private business, as required under Section 17 of the Public Service Act of 1992.

In the case of Reho Spa (Pty), Aantu Investments said they were approached by Ralph Blaauw less than a week before the official PPP-signing ceremony in early July 2008 after Blaauw’s Chinese partners had pulled out of an earlier deal with him.

Aantu was however objected to the NWR’s Aupindi miss-representing their contract in public by telling the black-tie event their contract was for 15 years while they were promised rights for 30 years. When Aupindi later insisted that they obtain Treasury approval themselves for the deal, “…we walked away from it,” one Aantu principal said.

Their N$300,000 signing fee was then repaid by Corneels Jafta, who is also the only registered director and shareholder in Reho Spa. But staff at the spa, situated in Rehoboth some 90 kilometers south of Windhoek, referred all queries in this respect to Blaauw.

None of the people involved in Tungeni Africa, Prosperity Africa or Reho Spa actually met the NWR’s stated pre-qualifying requirement of “…previous involvement and experience in the hospitality industry.”

Asked on what basis the NWR had approved the lucky bidders, Aupindi insisted that the NWR board itself had approved every contract.

But the Board itself has come under fire for gross financial miss-management at the NWR, with President Hifikepunye Pohamba, former President Sam Nujoma and Environment Minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah all snubbing the recent re-opening of the Ais-Ais Resort, a year late and nearly N$20 million over budget.

Questions in this regard were e-mailed to Aupindi, but no response has yet been received. Similarly, requests for comments from Sekandi, Zaamwani and others involved in Tungeni Africa have been stone-walled since middle June.
ENDIT