Former police commissioner Elise Haulyondjaba has requested the court and the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to release ex-fisheries minister Benhard Esau from jail to resolve issues of fishing quotas for former People’s Liberation Army of Namibia (Plan) combatants.
He also wants Esau out to deal with his case in which Haulyodjamba (75) was left stranded after fishing company Gendor Fishing, in which he claims he held a 23% stake, allegedly disappeared without paying his dividends.
Haulyondjaba made the request in a letter he wrote to ACC’s lead investigator in the Fishrot corruption case, Andreas Kanyangela, about a month ago.
“I am Elise Nghiyalasha Haulyondjaba. I am personally appealing to the investigators and prosecutors on the case of the former minister of fisheries Ben Esau to be granted bail, so that he can solve the outstanding case that he left on his table,” Haulyondjaba said.
Haulyodjamba said he joined the company in 1999 and bought shares for N$7 000 that year, but never received his dividends 23 years later.
He said when he bought the shares, he was told the company is owned by Swapo. However, former Swapo secretary for economic affairs Alfeus !Naruseb told The Namibian last year that he was not aware of the company.
“I believe my file was still on his table so I tried enquiring, but no answer. So, he is the only one [sic] not even the deputy, not the executive director [sic] that is why I am appealing to the investigator to give him bail so that he can solve my problem as an individual person,” he wrote.
Haulyondjaba said the court should hear his plea. “I am personally requesting for him to be given bail to solve this issue.”
ACC director general Paulus Noa confirmed the request.
“The letter of request has reached the ACC. Bail applications are heard in courts of law. I do not know whether his reason for the request of release on bail of the former minister is [on] a sound ground. He can approach the current minister of fisheries and marine resources to attend to his matter,” Noa said.
He told The Namibian this week that he and other “pioneer war veterans” face discrimination from the government, as it has failed to allocate them fishing quotas and resettle them since 1992.
Haulyondjaba said in 2017, the pioneer Plan fighters were 95, but now they are 13. He said many of his colleagues died because of stress and one of them has been admitted at Oshakati Intermediate Hospital’s intensive care unit.
“We are dying while on the list, waiting to be allocated resettlement farms,” he said.
He said during former president Hifikepunye Pohamba’s era, they requested to see him, but were never grante an audience.
“We were paraded at Eenhana in 2007 and praised as heroes. He then gave us medals. Medals are useless. We cannot sell medals to sustain ourselves. People are now laughing at us,” Haulyondjaba said.
However, in a letter written by five war veterans, including Haulyondjaba, to former land reform minister Utoni Nujoma dated 29 March 2018, they admitted that they have been resettled at farm Owl Wood since 1993.
“We wrote letters to the Ministry of Land and Resettlement complaining about the situation at the farm. We lost many cattle at the farm due to thieves. You know the lifestyle of those people, they cannot live without hunting. Police [officers] arrest them, they get released and continue killing our animals,” they said.
Haulyondjaba served as police commissioner in the north for 14 years. Before independence, Haulyondjaba was Swapo’s envoy in Angola in the 1970s, tasked with helping to establish the northern front.
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