Affirmative Repositioning (AR) leader Job Amupanda has accused the Ministry of Defence and Veterans Affairs of fabricating a quotation to buy a million-dollar car part.
The alleged purchase amounted to N$8 million. This is as the defence ministry on Saturday said it was analysing and investigating the authenticity of letters Amupanda has presented.
Amupanda in a subsequent video displayed documents as apparent proof of his allegations.
Amupanda claims corrupt officials and generals conspired to create the document, which he says was later used to mislead the public during a press conference.
“For the motherland, I will not leave any stone unturned. As we always say, lies indeed have short legs.
The corrupt officials and generals actually gave an order for the fabrication of a quotation that doesn’t exist, and went on to attack me and tell the public lies to cover the truth about one car part that cost N$8 million,” Amupanda posted on social media yesterday.
He said employees of the involved company, Windhoeker Maschinen Fabrik (WMF), have come forward to confirm that the quotation was fabricated under duress.
He also shared letters from WMF’s managing director and finance manager, reportedly corroborating his allegations.
WMF is a subsidiary of the Namibian Defence Force and is owned by the government.
“The people who were forced to fabricate the non-existent quotation of so-called ‘thousands of parts’ for the so-called ‘14 Werwolf’, from the N$8 million part-selling company WMF, decided to stand for the motherland by placing on record that; quotation doesn’t exist, they were forced to fabricate it. Such fabrication was done for the purposes of a press conference,” Amupanda said.
He further criticised the chief executive of August 26 Holdings, which is owned by the government.
He called out journalists for uncritically accepting and amplifying the ministry’s claims without verifying the details.
According to a report by the Namibia Press Agency (Nampa), executive director of defence and veterans affairs Wilhelmina Shivute addressed these claims at an urgent press conference on Wednesday.
She clarified that the ministry had hosted a bilateral peace support training exercise with Botswana in the Omaheke region.
Shivute said armoured personnel carriers of the NDF, also known as ‘Werwolf’ vehicles, were scheduled to be serviced for the event.
“That was the reason why a request was made to Windhoeker Maschinen Fabrik to supply those spare parts.
Why Windhoeker Maschinen Fabrik? Windhoeker Maschinen Fabrik is the manufacturer of the Werwolf vehicles, and hence their major repairs and spare parts are normally sourced from there,” she explained.
Shivute further clarified that although the invoice indicates the quantity as ‘one’, this does not refer to a single spare part.
“It means spare parts of one brand of vehicles. If the brands were more than one, it would have been reflected as such.
We have in our possession the list of the said spare parts for which the ministry was invoiced,” Shivute said.
– Additional reporting by Nampa
Stay informed with The Namibian – your source for credible journalism. Get in-depth reporting and opinions for
only N$85 a month. Invest in journalism, invest in democracy –
Subscribe Now!
