Teko trio trial still in limbo

THE High Court trial of former Public Service Commission member Teckla Lameck, her business partner Kongo Mokaxwa, and Chinese citizen Yang Fan is still in limbo while a Supreme Court judgement related to their case is being awaited.

Lameck (56), Mokaxwa (37) and Yang (46) were back in the dock in the Windhoek High Court on Wednesday to have their case postponed yet again, pending the Supreme Court’s judgement on their attempt to have judge Maphios Cheda recused from their trial.

The case was postponed to 26 April and the bail of each of them was extended.

The Supreme Court reserved judgement on the appeal after hearing arguments in June last year.

Lameck, Mokaxwa and Yang face various charges, including a joint count of fraud, since April 2013. They pleaded not guilty on all counts at the start of their trial.

The fraud charge emanates from a transaction in which the Ministry of Finance bought X-ray scanners for US$55,3 million (then about N$477 million) from a Chinese company, Nuctech, which was represented by Yang, in early 2009.

The prosecution alleges that the price of the scanners was inflated to enable Nuctech to pay a ‘commission’ of at least US$12,8 million to a Close Corporation owned by Lameck and Mokaxwa, Teko Trading CC, even though Teko Trading played no role in the transaction between the ministry and the Chinese company.

Lameck and Mokaxwa also stand accused of having defrauded the Swapo-owned Namib Contract Haulage, where Mokaxwa was employed and Lameck was a company director, by having inflated the price the company paid for lorries and buses that it imported from China in early 2007.

The prosecution is further charging that Lameck did not have the required consent of the President to be engaged in other paid work while she was employed as a commissioner of the Public Service Commission, and that she was guilty of contraventions of the Anti-Corruption Act as a result.

After the testimony of 20 prosecution witnesses had been heard by judge Cheda, the three accused’s defence team raised an objection against bank account records in evidence obtained through summonses issued by the director general of the Anti-Corruption Commission.

Judge Cheda dismissed the objection in a ruling delivered in June 2014. The defence team then applied for his recusal from the trial, based on a complaint that he had prejudged anticipated objections against evidence obtained through the use of search and seizure warrants by referring to such warrants in his judgement, while the legality of the warrants was not yet a live issue before him.

The trial has not progressed since the launch of the Supreme Court appeal against judge Cheda’s refusal to recuse himself.

If their appeal to the Supreme Court succeeds, their trial would have to start afresh infront of another judge and all witnesses would have to return to court to retestify.

Lameck, Mokaxwa and Yang were arrested in July 2009. Lameck and Mokaxwa were released on bail of N$50 000 each in October 2009, while Yang went free on bail of N$1 million in August 2010.