A Lawyer representing former agriculture minister Mac Hengari has slashed the amount of N$10.25 million for which Hengari sued a rape case complainant in the Windhoek High Court.
In an amended claim that lawyer Mekumbu Tjiteere, who is representing Hengari, filed at the court last week, changes have been made to the amounts of money Hengari is demanding in a defamation case filed in April this year.
Hengari initially demanded N$10.25 million collectively from a complainant who registered a rape case against him with the police, the complainant’s mother, two police officers involved in the investigation of the rape claim against him, the inspector general of the Namibian Police, the minister of home affairs, immigration, safety and security, the newspaper Confidénte, and also its editor, Max Hamata.
However, Tjiteere filed an amended claim at the Windhoek High Court last week, with the amount demanded from the complainant and her mother changed to N$500 000 in respect of each of them.
The amount that Hengari is demanding from the two police officers, the inspector general and the minister of safety and security has been kept unchanged at N$10.25 million, but the amount he wants Confidénte and Hamata to pay to him has been lowered to N$1 million.
In another change to Hengari’s defamation claim, the court is being asked to order Confidénte and Hamata to unconditionally apologise to Hengari and retract alleged defamatory statements published in the newspaper.
Hengari and a brother of the complainant in the rape matter that was reported to the police were arrested in Windhoek near the end of last April, after Hengari allegedly offered N$220 200 to the complainant as an inducement for her to withdraw the charge she had registered with the police.
After his arrest, Hengari lost his position as minister of agriculture, fisheries, water and land reform, and spent more than three months in custody before he and his co-accused in the matter were granted bail in an amount of N$15 000 each last August.
The prosecutor general decided in March this year that Hengari and his co-accused should stand trial in the Windhoek Regional Court on charges of corruptly giving or offering gratification, bribery and defeating or obstructing the course of justice.
Their trial is scheduled to start on 23 November.
In the claim filed at the High Court in April, and also in the amended claim, it is alleged that Hengari told police officers who interviewed him about allegations made by the rape complainant at the end of last March that “the accusations were part of an elaborate scheme of extortion” against him by the complainant and her mother, who, according to him, attempted to secure asylum in Canada for which he was to pay.
It is also alleged that Hengari’s arrest on 26 April 2025, when he had an appointment to meet the complainant’s brother at a restaurant in Windhoek, resulted from “an entrapment operation” by Namibian Police officers in which Hamata is also alleged to have been involved.
Hamata “had free rein at the ‘scene’ at the time and took numerous photographs of the event and was broadcasting and/or reporting on the arrest live in real time”, it is alleged in Hengari’s claim.
It is also alleged that defamatory statements about Hengari were published in Confidénte’s edition of 24 April to 1 May 2025.
Hengari “suffered a violation of his constitutional rights in that the defendants knew at the time of his arrest that he did not commit any unlawful conduct, and that the arrest and detention were arbitrary and unlawful”, it is alleged in his claim as well.
Lawyers representing the complainant’s mother, the inspector general, the two police officers sued by Hengari, and the minister of safety and security have informed the court so far that their clients are opposing Hengari’s legal action.
