Government entities dealing with the Phala Phala investigation lied over communications with their Namibian counterparts.
The Sunday Independent, can today reveal that our report on the legal letter sent to the Department of Justice on July 23, 2020, asking for mutual assistance was swept under the rug.
Today we can exclusively reveal the contents of the letter from the Ministry of Justice in Namibia to South African Justice Minister Ronald Lamola. This comes despite Lamola’s spokesperson, Chrispin Phiri, in June 2022 having said: “We can categorically state that, to date, there is no official record of this specific request.”
The letter seen by Sunday Independent, dated July 23, 2020, states that it is a “request for mutual legal assistance in a criminal matter from the Republic of South Africa: suspected money laundering offences in contravention of the prevention of the Organised Crime Act”.
The letter named the alleged mastermind of the Phala Phala farm robbery, Imanuwela David, and his accomplices, Petrus Afrikaner and Erkki Shikongo, as the “subjects”.
These were some of the five men who were named by former spy boss Arthur Fraser when he opened a case of defeating the ends of justice, kidnapping and torture against President Cyril Ramaphosa and the head of his Presidential Protection Service, General Wally Rhoode, as the Namibians who stole an undisclosed amount of American dollars, estimated to be between $4 million and $8m, from the president’s farm.
The letter said the three men “made electronic fund transfers (EFTs) to various individuals’ bank accounts in Namibia”.
“According to the information provided to the Namibia Police Force, the subjects are alleged to have committed theft in South Africa,” the letter stated.
The letter also revealed the EFT payments the men made from their South African bank accounts into Namibian bank accounts:
Shikongo transferred:
- N$1000 000 (R1m) from his South African account on March 11, 2020.
- N$500 000 (R500 000) to an account held in the name of Tafelelo Technologies.
- N$110 000 on March 6, 2020, to an account held in the name of Immanuel Shaduka.
- N$233 700 between April and May 2020 into an account held in the name of Ndapandula Aipanda.
Afrikaner transferred:
- N$500 000 on February 26, 2020, into an account held in the name of Lovisa Kapenangolo
- N$20 000 on March 25, 2020, into an account held in the name of Hafeni Avula.
- N$1 200 000 into an account held in the name of Avula.
- N$50 000 into an account held in the name of Hilaraia Ndapewa between February 19 and June 11, 2020.
- N$2 900 000 between March 11 and 23, 2020, into an account held in the name of Clement Shikongo.
- N$500 000 into an account held in the name of Ana Bela on March 23, 2020.
David transferred:
- N$86 500 into an account held in the name of Ndapandula Aipanda.
The letter also revealed in detail withdrawals the men made in Namibia using different references including Three Jackpots and Amandla Guest House. It also added their investigation revealed that some of “the beneficiaries that received money purchased properties”.
The letter stated that “in the light of the above investigations, the Namibian Police Force requests mutual legal assistance through your ministry, from the Republic of South Africa, to obtain the following listed evidential information”:
Imalwa confirmed to Sunday Independent in June last year that she was the one who advised the local police to seek mutual legal assistance from South Africa.
“They wanted my office to prepare a preservation order but there was some outstanding information missing from South Africa and I advised them to contact their South African counterparts for these missing details but in the end, they came back empty-handed,” Imalwa said.
The Phala Phala farm theft made international headlines in June last year when Fraser opened a criminal case against Ramaphosa and Rhoode at the Rosebank police station in Johannesburg.
Fraser said Ramaphosa and Rhoode failed to report the robbery at any police station. Fraser said the thieves, who were all Namibians based in Cape Town, were traced and apprehended and allegedly tortured to reveal where they had stashed the stolen money.
Fraser claims the men were paid R150 000 for their silence and released after handing over their loot.
