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From cleaner<br />
to business<br />
owner<br />
P14<br />
Cycle Classic<br />
growing from<br />
strength to<br />
strength<br />
P32<br />
Land Rover and<br />
Red Cross<br />
Give Back<br />
31<br />
YEARS OF<br />
INDEPENDENT<br />
REPORTING<br />
Still Telling It Like It Is! Vol. 31 No. 209<br />
N$3 Wednesday 5 July 2017<br />
SME Bank<br />
on brink<br />
of closure<br />
FAMILY TREE ... The Namisen<br />
family members are being removed<br />
from farm Garib, a few<br />
kilometres outside Dordabis.<br />
This comes after their father<br />
Moses, who was a farmworker<br />
there for four decades, died in<br />
March this year. The tree under<br />
which they stand was a symbol<br />
of their father and mother.<br />
• SHINOVENE IMMANUEL<br />
THE Bank of Namibia approached the High<br />
Court on an urgent basis yesterday to close the<br />
SME Bank, arguing that government cannot<br />
continue bailing it out.<br />
Apart from a lack of money, according to court<br />
papers, the banking regulator also argued that<br />
the SME Bank was a financial risk and should<br />
cease operations.<br />
Bank of Namibia governor Ipumbu Shiimi<br />
issued a media statement yesterday, announcing<br />
that they were approaching the High Court for<br />
an order to close the troubled bank.<br />
If the High Court grants the order to close<br />
the SME Bank, more than 200 people will lose<br />
their jobs.<br />
“While the Bank of Namibia is aware of the<br />
anxiety these actions may cause to the employees,<br />
depositors, creditors, and other interested<br />
parties, it nevertheless calls for calm during<br />
this period, and urges stakeholders to cooperate<br />
fully and exercise the necessary patience,”<br />
Shiimi said.<br />
SME: continued on page 2<br />
Family asked to leave farm after father’s death<br />
• NDANKI KAHIURIKA<br />
MARTHA Namises (53) fights back<br />
tears as she narrates her family’s history<br />
at the Luehl/Garib farm which they<br />
have been asked to leave.<br />
Luehl/Garib is an 18 000-hectare<br />
farm outside Dordabis, a rural<br />
village with a population of 1 200<br />
consisting mainly of former farm<br />
workers who were thrown out of<br />
22 nearby farms.<br />
Namises said her father, Moses Namiseb,<br />
who died at the age of 90 in March<br />
this year, had worked at the farm for more<br />
than 40 years before he retired at 60.<br />
Namiseb first worked for Hans-Joachim<br />
Luehl from 1965, and continued<br />
working there when his son Hans-Peter<br />
Luehl took over the farm in 1983.<br />
In 2014, Luehl gave the farm to his<br />
daughter Juljane Hess, who is married<br />
to Sigurd Hess.<br />
According to Namises, their father<br />
was given a portion of land at one of the<br />
farm’s posts to live on with his family<br />
upon his retirement, and he continued<br />
living there for 30 years until his death.<br />
FAMILY: continued on page 2<br />
TEARFUL ... One of<br />
the eleven siblings,<br />
Martha Namises, in<br />
tears as she recounted<br />
how she brought<br />
her children to the<br />
farm for holidays.<br />
Photos: Ndanki Kahiurika<br />
Property dealer gets TNamib deal<br />
Americo de Almeida<br />
• SHINOVENE IMMANUEL<br />
RAIL parastatal TransNamib awarded<br />
the contract to manage its properties<br />
across the country worth N$1,4 billion<br />
to AIJ Property Management,<br />
a well-connected company that has<br />
built a strong reputation of snapping<br />
up lucrative state contracts over the<br />
past few years.<br />
Documents seen by The Namibian<br />
show that the cash-strapped TransNamib<br />
awarded AIJ Project Management<br />
a three-year contract from September<br />
2016 to administer the parastatal’s<br />
property portfolio valued at around<br />
N$1,4 billion.<br />
AIJ Property Management is coowned<br />
by “previously disadvantaged”<br />
shareholders such as businessman<br />
Americo de Almeida and Isak Nahum,<br />
who own a combined 75%, while Jorik<br />
Botha owns 25%.<br />
People familiar with this story allege<br />
that De Almeida was close to suspended<br />
property manager Struggle Ihuhua,<br />
whom they said recommended the<br />
company. It is further alleged that De<br />
Almeida and Ihuhua met privately on<br />
several occasions.<br />
Ihuhua declined to comment, saying<br />
the contract is between TransNamib<br />
and AIJ. De Almeida also declined to<br />
comment yesterday.<br />
TransNamib has one of the biggest<br />
property portfolios among state-owned<br />
entities. Most of TransNamib’s properties<br />
were amassed before independence<br />
in 1990.<br />
The rail parastatal has, however,<br />
failed to manage the property to its<br />
maximum. In fact, a 2016 audit report<br />
claimed that TransNamib does not<br />
know how many houses and land it<br />
owns countrywide.<br />
A 2016 report by EY, formerly Ernst<br />
& Young, shows that their investigators<br />
found it difficult to locate TransNamib’s<br />
property because the parastatal<br />
did not have an updated asset register.<br />
TNAMIB: continued on page 2<br />
Tel: (061) 279600; Fax: 279602; PO Box 20783, Windhoek; email: news@namibian.com.na; website: www.namibian.com.na
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