Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

Banner Left
Banner Right

Josea bankruptcy hearing resumes

Josea bankruptcy hearing resumes

AN ALREADY drawn-out hearing that is set to determine the financial future of one of the main figures in last year’s N$30 million Social Security Commission investment fiasco resumed in the High Court in Windhoek yesterday.

In the hearing that restarted before Judge President Petrus Damaseb after an almost two-and-a-half-month break yesterday, the Judge President continued hearing arguments on applications to have both an asset-management company that was used as an intermediary in the transfer of the SSC’s investment, Namangol Investments, and the company’s owner and Chief Executive Officer, Nico Josea, declared bankrupt. Today the Judge President is set to continue hearing arguments from Jaco van Rooyen, the lawyer representing Namangol Investments and Josea, and Andrew Corbett, representing the liquidator who was put in charge of Avid Investment Corporation, the asset-management company with which the SSC originally struck a deal for the investment of N$30 million in January last year.The liquidator, Eric Knouwds, is claiming that Namangol Investments and Josea are unable to repay to Avid the money that the latter company transferred to Namangol Investments after the SSC first gave Avid N$30 million in late January last year with the understanding that this money was to be invested for a four-month period.Avid transferred N$29,5 million of the SSC’s N$30 million to Namangol Investments, and from there the money started flowing in various directions both within and out of Namibia – including, it is alleged, into the personal pockets of Josea and Avid’s creator and de facto CEO, the late Lazarus Kandara.Josea is opposing the applications to have the court issue an order liquidating Namangol Investments and sequestrating his personal estate.When affidavits forming part of the record of the three related cases that the Judge President is hearing at the same time were first filed with the court last year, Josea claimed that the money that he and his company were supposed to invest on the SSC’s and Avid’s behalf was supposed to be repaid only by early March this year.That deadline has passed without the money being repaid, but Josea and his legal team had an argument ready to explain that failure to honour the repayment promise.That argument is that the interference of the SSC, Avid and the liquidator, when they started insisting that the investment had to be repaid, threw such a spanner into the works that it made it impossible for Namangol and Josea to make the repayment as promised.The combined bankruptcy hearing on Namangol Investments and Josea finally began – after previous abortive starts in November last year and late January this year – on March 2.The Judge President heard arguments from the two lawyers over the course of three days in that first session of the hearing.The hearing has been set down to continue today and on Monday.Today the Judge President is set to continue hearing arguments from Jaco van Rooyen, the lawyer representing Namangol Investments and Josea, and Andrew Corbett, representing the liquidator who was put in charge of Avid Investment Corporation, the asset-management company with which the SSC originally struck a deal for the investment of N$30 million in January last year.The liquidator, Eric Knouwds, is claiming that Namangol Investments and Josea are unable to repay to Avid the money that the latter company transferred to Namangol Investments after the SSC first gave Avid N$30 million in late January last year with the understanding that this money was to be invested for a four-month period.Avid transferred N$29,5 million of the SSC’s N$30 million to Namangol Investments, and from there the money started flowing in various directions both within and out of Namibia – including, it is alleged, into the personal pockets of Josea and Avid’s creator and de facto CEO, the late Lazarus Kandara.Josea is opposing the applications to have the court issue an order liquidating Namangol Investments and sequestrating his personal estate.When affidavits forming part of the record of the three related cases that the Judge President is hearing at the same time were first filed with the court last year, Josea claimed that the money that he and his company were supposed to invest on the SSC’s and Avid’s behalf was supposed to be repaid only by early March this year.That deadline has passed without the money being repaid, but Josea and his legal team had an argument ready to explain that failure to honour the repayment promise.That argument is that the interference of the SSC, Avid and the liquidator, when they started insisting that the investment had to be repaid, threw such a spanner into the works that it made it impossible for Namangol and Josea to make the repayment as promised.The combined bankruptcy hearing on Namangol Investments and Josea finally began – after previous abortive starts in November last year and late January this year – on March 2.The Judge President heard arguments from the two lawyers over the course of three days in that first session of the hearing.The hearing has been set down to continue today and on Monday.

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!

Latest News