Written by Patience Nyangove
Thursday, 14 January 2010
THE ruling Swapo party has allegedly been defrauded of at least N$100,000 by A-Z Investments, an advertising company owned by Tonata Shiimi.
Shiimi was recently appointed the General Manager of the Southern Times a weekly regional newspaper co-owned by the Namibian and Zimbabwean Governments but the appointment could not be confirmed by the NamZim Board Chairperson, Matthew //Gowaseb who was not picking up his phone.
According to available documents, Swapo contracted A-Z Investment Holdings during the run up to the Presidential and National Assembly elections last year to produce 270 campaign artworks and mount the posters in 14 selected towns across the country but it is alleged that the company produced only 110 .
The alleged fraud came to light after one of the A-Z Investment Holdings workers, John Ackim Pedzisai, who had not been paid spilled the beans.
Ackim-Pedzisai together with another employee of the company have since lodged their case with the Labour Court against Shiimi.
“In Okahandja, Gobabis, Rehoboth, Keetmanshoop we placed 10 posters in each town while in Tsumeb we placed 20 among others and in total we only erected 110 posters instead of the 270 paid for by Swapo,” Ackim Pedzisai said.
He further alleged that Shiimi allegedly took advantage of the fact that the Swapo party was busy with the elections and did not have time to verify whether all the 270 posters they had paid for with N$183,000 were mounted.
A letter in possession of Informanté written by Shiimi on 23 November 2009 claims that A-Z Investment Holdings placed 20 posters in Rundu, Katima 20, Tsumeb 20, Ondangwa 20, Okahandja 10, Okahao 20, Ongwediva 20, Oshikango 10, Helao Nafidi 20, Tsumeb 30, Eengela 20, Keetmanshoop 20, Gobabis 20 and Rehoboth 20.
A senior Swapo official in the finance department privy to the issue who agreed to speak to Informanté on condition of anonymity confirmed that the party was defrauded.
“We contracted A-Z to print and post 270 posters across the country. However, as we are unearthing now they never fulfilled the contract. The other time I went to Rundu and they were supposed to be 20 posters in the town but to my surprise only 10 had been erected. When I contacted Shiimi he gave me the excuse that they had erected the other 10 in Grootfontein. However, when I drove past the town there were no posters at all.
“It was very difficult for us to know what was transpiring in all towns because we are in Windhoek, but now we understand that some towns never had posters erected at all,” the Swapo official said.
When contacted for comment Shiimi who was verbally abusive accused this reporter of being Pedzisai’s cousin and that he did not discuss his business in the press.
“I have been doing business with Swapo for many years. If Swapo has a complaint, they should come to me. They have never complained. I deal with them on a daily basis. There is no truth in this. If your uncle comes to you with baseless allegations you write the story,” he said.
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