Desert Star has become difficult to trace

Desert Star, the company that sued The Namibian for N$25 million over a report in 2011, has become difficult to trace since 2012 and remained silent on legal costs they were supposed to pay, lawyers for the newspaper said this week.

On top of being unreachable, the company gave only N$100 000 to a charity organisation, from N$1,5 million collected at a dinner they held during a launch in 2010.

Three years after their glamourous launch, there has been no clear progress regarding the “world class” film production studio that they planned to set up in the south of the country.

Lawyers for The Namibian are struggling to trace Desert Star after the film studio investor sued over a news report in December 2011 headlined ‘Desert Star: Pipe dream or feasible?’ that analysed their business model and ability to deliver on a promise to invest more than N$600 million in the Namibian film industry.

After the report Desert Star sued The Free Press of Namibia, which is the company that owns The Namibian , its editor Tangeni Amupadhi, journalist Shinovene Immanuel and the newspaper printers for N$25 million.

The case did not go far after attorneys for The Namibian applied successfully to set aside their case for being irregular.

After losing that first round, Desert Start was obliged to pay about N$8 000 in legal costs.

“Although we were successfully awarded taxed legal costs in this matter, we encountered difficulties in executing these costs because the plaintiff seems to continue changing addresses,” said Saima Nambinga of the law firm Angula Coleman.

“They [Desert Star] have not replied to our demand for payment of the legal cost to say they will or will not pay.

They have since remained silent on the issue,” she said.

Contact details on Desert Star’s website show that their postal address is at Maerua Mall in Windhoek. Oryx Properties, the company which owns Maerua Mall shopping centre yesterday said that Desert Star do not have offices there. An official from Telecom Namibia yesterday said the unanswerable telephone number of Desert Star is located in Klein Windhoek.

Desert Star raised millions of Namibia Dollars from Namibian and international investors by selling the “fractional ownership” of film studios and accommodation units in Namibia.

According to Desert Star, their audited financial statements to the end of December 2010 showed that approximately N$18 million was raised from Namibian investors. The method of fundraising was questioned by people in the film industry.

Keane Harvey, head of Legal Affairs at Desert Star told The Namibian at the end of 2011 that the first studio was expected in 2012. This has not happened.

At a gala evening dubbed ‘Night of the Stars’ in 2010, Desert Star raised more than N$1,5 million that was to benefit the Empowerment of Widows/Widowers and Orphans of HIV-AIDS in Namibia (Oewona).

Of the N$1,5million pledged that night, Oewona has received only N$100 000.

Desert Star has, since January 2012, refused to provide detailed progress on their ambitious plans, despite preferring questions to be e-mailed to them.

Desert Star chief executive officer Rudolf Markgraaff earlier this year said:

“Don’t ever even bother to send us new questions as long as your bullshit idiotic old articles remains online.”