Staff Reporter
The High Court of Namibia ordered the Bank of Namibia yesterday to cease any and all steps and actions, including any legal action, taken to implement its administrative decision on 5 September 2022 against Trustco Bank Namibia (TBN).
Collexia Payments (Pty) Ltd (Collexia), one of TBN’s principal clients, brought an urgent application to the High Court of Namibia on Thursday, 13 October 2022, to this effect.
This is the second time that BON has acted in non-compliance of its empowering legislation under the leadership of Johannes !Gawaxab. In June this year, in the urgent matter between CBI Exchange Namibia Pty Ltd (CBI) and BON heard before the High Court of Namibia, BON received a lashing by Justice Coleman for both overstepping their mandate as well as non-compliance with a High Court order.
To wit, he noted, “When courts issue orders, they do so not as suggestions or pleas to persons at whom they are directed. Court orders issued ex cathedra, are compulsive, peremptory, and expressly binding. It is not for any party; be high or low, weak, or mighty and quite regardless of his status or standing in society, to decide whether or not to obey; to choose which to obey and which to ignore or to negotiate the manner of compliance.”
Subsequently the court ordered BON to pay the costs of CBI – costs which must be recovered from ordinary Namibian citizens. They must now bear the financial burden of the incorrect and irrational decisions made by representatives of Government and Administrative institutions like BON.
This followed after TBN announced on 26 September 2022 that it brought a review application against TBN’s regulator, BON, to set aside certain administrative directives BON made against TBN as well as declaring certain sections of the Banking Institutions Act of Namibia unconstitutional.
