Agriculture, water and land reform minister Calle Schlettwein says he does not feel his money is safe in the bank after funds were stolen from his personal bank account.
The minister refused to say how much money was stolen or the name of the bank. However, he says the stolen amount is in the thousands.
Schlettwein says he is happy that the police are investigating and some money has been returned.
“I was very happy that the police are really investigating the banking system.
The investigation is ongoing.
There is no outcome yet, [but] some of the money was returned, they could stop it,” Schlettwein told The Namibian yesterday.
He is not sure if the theft of his money is linked to the recent massive data leak at Telecom Namibia, he said.
Schlettwein is one of the Namibian politicians whose personal information was leaked on social media over the weekend.
He said the investigation does not link the theft to the data leak.
“It’s more of local guys that were doing it but now that this data leak came, it’s more frightening. It’s a very serious issue.
If our data is not safe and our properties like money are not safe, that’s a very nasty thing,” he said.
Schlettwein believes serious efforts need to be made to ensure people’s data is not compromised.
“What I am also worried about is the rate at which this information is becoming public.
We are all involved, every Namibian is involved. If we keep quiet, I think that is not proper,” he said.
Namibian Police deputy commissioner of commercial crime investigations Given Kaura could not say when the money was stolen and how much.
“Schlettwein is the right guy to answer those questions. We don’t have much information on it.”
Namibian Sun reported in August 2020 that Schlettwein made a wealth declaration of N$15.4 million at parliament.
That marked a N$7.4 million increase in, or almost doubling of, his net wealth from 2016, when he was worth N$8.1 million.
He is not the first Cabinet member to have money stolen from the bank. In June this year, prime minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila opened a case of fraud and theft after she was scammed out of N$159 000 by a suspect pretending to be a bank official.
In 2022, minister of defence and veterans affairs Frans Kapofi was defrauded of N$200 000.
The minister registered a case of fraud at the Windhoek Police Station after being scammed by a man pretending to phone from his bank, offering to assist him with his accounts.
The suspect, Owen Mahoto, was arrested and appeared in court.
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