The crimes that former Roads Contractor Company (RCC) chief executive Kelly Nghixulifwa has been convicted of were not aimed at self-enrichment, a Windhoek High Court judge said before sentencing Nghixulifwa to pay a fine of N$150 000 yesterday.
“In none of the charges did he personally benefit from his actions,” judge Christie Liebenberg remarked during Nghixulifwa’s sentencing at the end of a drawn-out trial.
Liebenberg sentenced Nghixulifwa (66) to pay a fine of N$150 000 or serve a prison term of three years on a charge of fraud and three counts of corruptly using his position as chief executive of the state-owned RCC.
He also sentenced Nghixulifwa to two years’ imprisonment, suspended for a period of five years on condition that he is not convicted of any of the corrupt practices under chapter 4 of the Anti-Corruption Act or of fraud, committed during the period of suspension.
Businessman Hafeni Nghinamwaami (59), who stood trial with Nghixulifwa and was found guilty on a charge of fraud, was sentenced to pay a fine of N$30 000 or serve a jail term of one year.
Nghinamwaami was also sentenced to six months’ imprisonment, suspended for a period of three years, on condition that he pays N$30 000 to the RCC by 7 August and is not convicted of fraud, committed during the period of suspension.
Liebenberg convicted Nghixulifwa and Nghinamwaami eight weeks ago.
The charges on which they were found guilty date back to 2004, 2005 and 2006, when the RCC was involved in the B1 City property development project in Windhoek and when a new head office for the state-owned company was being constructed in Windhoek.
Liebenberg found that Nghixulifwa used his position as chief executive of the RCC to benefit the company, /Ae //Gams Engineering, which was involved in the B1 City property development project in Windhoek.
Nghixulifwa authorised a payment of close to N$4,5 million with RCC funds in October 2005 to buy the land on which the B1 City property development was to take place. The land was sold by the City of Windhoek and was transferred into the name of /Ae //Gams Engineering as purchaser.
Liebenberg also found that Nghixulifwa kept the RCC’s board of directors in the dark about the use of RCC funds for the property transaction.
On the fraud charge on which Nghixulifwa was convicted, the judge found that he deceived the RCC’s board of directors at the end of June 2006 by informing them that a mortgage bond in an amount of close to N$4,5 million had been registered in favour of the RCC, when in reality the registration of a mortgage bond was finalised only toward the end of 2006.
The judge further found that Nghixulifwa used his position as RCC chief executive to benefit Nghinamwaami’s company Cradle Investment by getting the RCC to pay close to N$30 000 to an auditing firm that had done work for the company. Nghinamwaami was convicted of fraud in connection with that payment.
Nghixulifwa was also convicted of having used his position as RCC chief executive in March 2006 to authorise a payment of close to N$93 000 by the RCC to settle the arrears on a home loan account of an employee of the company. Nghixulifwa later paid that money back to the RCC.
After being convicted, Nghixulifwa, who is a mechanical engineer, told the court he has spent about N$3,5 million on legal fees as a result of the charges he was facing during protracted court proceedings.
He lost his properties during the years the charges were hanging over his head, is now living in a rented flat, and still has a lawyer’s bill of N$600 000 to pay, Nghixulifwa said.
He also said the money that the RCC paid to buy the land for the B1 City project was recovered by the company.
Although Nghixulifwa abused the position of trust that he occupied in the RCC, the crimes of which he was convicted were not aimed at self-enrichment, Liebenberg remarked during the sentencing.
Defence lawyers Veiko Alexander and Trevor Brockerhoff represented Nghixulifwa and Nghinamwaami, respectively.
The state was represented by Hesekiel Iipinge.
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!
