Staff Reporter
POTGIETER VILHO, real name Toivo Simeon, a northern-based Namibian who is being sued by businessman Ben Hauwanga for defamation of character, said that he made allegations against Hauwanga in the interest of the public with the aim of rooting out corruption.
Simeon, in replying court documents, has sung like a canary, accusing the businessman of dubious criminal activity, including assassination attempts, trafficking of Namibian workers to a mine in southern Angola where they died, as well as covering up the murder of an Angolan national.
Hauwanga initiated legal action against the Ongwediva-based resident, claiming N$500,000 for allegedly damaging his reputation. In widely circulated WhatsApp audios, it is alleged that Simeon claimed that Hauwanga is an incompetent businessman who is corrupt, and that he is not worthy of being associated with Namibia’s current president, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah.
Simeon further alleged that Hauwanga wrongfully used funds payable to the defendant to fund the campaign of then Prime Minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah against Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila and Pohamba Shifeta.
He further claimed that Hauwanga colluded with him to cause the death of another person in Angola.
“…You are being called upon these days at the Angolan Embassy. I have already received a letter, an email that came to me from Luanda, that there will be two envoys coming to the Angolan Embassy in Namibia, I mean in Windhoek. They are calling you there, so we can go talk about that person that we have killed there in Angola…” Simeon is quoted as saying in the audio, adding that Hauwanga has been in collusion with the police to obstruct justice.
He further claimed that Hauwanga contracted him to do an architectural design job in Angola; however, he failed to pay him and owes him N$1,500,000.00.
Simeon further claimed he overheard a phone call in Portuguese by Captain Gabriel of the Angolan military and a third person, during which Captain Gabriel expressed his frustration about the unsuccessful attempts to get him assassinated.
“Further, the defendant (Simeon) pleads that the plaintiff (Hauwanga) and his business associates needed to eliminate the defendant because he had inadvertently come to learn about how the said people had killed General Angelo Paca,” the lawyers representing Simeon wrote.
Simeon further pleaded that he has informed the Regional Commander of Oshana, Commissioner Lungameni, that he had evidence that the plaintiff had illegally taken/trafficked people into Angola to go and work at his diamond mine.
“Further, the defendant (Simeon) also informed the Namibian Police that he had information of Namibians who had died under suspicious circumstances in Angola at the diamond mine of the plaintiff (Hauwanga), and that their corpses were smuggled back into Namibia. Further, some of these mine workers who had previously been trafficked into Angola by the plaintiff were then later brought back dead to Namibia, including a certain Abed Mamanya Hatutuale, a certain Peter Maspiri, a certain Jackson Sakaria, and various others. The defendant has the names of the funeral undertakers and church pastors who were involved in the burials,” the Du Pisani legal practitioners said.
They added that the above-named deceased persons were buried without any autopsies having been conducted on their corpses in order to determine what had killed them in Angola.
