Staff Reporter
HIGH Court Judge Marilize du Plessis has dismissed an application by former Minister of Justice Sacky Shanghala in which he sought leave to appeal a judgment in the Supreme Court made by du Plessis, in which she dismissed most of the accused’s requests for further disclosure of documents in relation to the Fishrot trial.
Shanghala and his co-accused, who have been in custody since November 2019, have been ensnared in lengthy interlocutory court proceedings, mostly filed by Shanghala, which have seen the trial fail to kick off nearly five years later.
Judge du Plessis, in her ruling, said that in the instant case, the information is contained in the contents of the docket, and that is not challenged, adding that the court would accept the State’s assertions that the information requested is already in the docket.
“The proverbial flipside of the coin is that our courts do not look kindly on trial by ambush. If the State were to use documents not disclosed to the accused, they would have to make out a case for such to be done. The court will order further disclosures by the State if and when needed throughout the trial,” du Plessis said.
She added that she further found there are no exceptional circumstances before her to convince her to grant leave to appeal to the Supreme Court, adding that she is also not convinced that there is any gross injustice present with regard to disclosure.
The judge further postponed the case to 25 November 2025 for a pretrial conference in an attempt to have the trial, which has been delayed for so long, start.
“It is apparent, given the number of accused and various counts faced, and the number of witnesses (over 300) involved in this case, we cannot continue without this matter being sorted out. We cannot walk blind into this trial,” du Plessis said.
The accused in the Fishrot trial include Shanghala; former Minister of Fisheries, Bernard Esau; and other businessmen, including Mike Nghipunya, former Fishcor Chief Executive Officer (CEO); Esau’s son-in-law Tamson Hatuikulipi; his brother James Hatuikulipi; Ricardo Gustavo; Otneel Shuudifonya; and Phillipus Mwapopi. They together face over 40 counts involving fraud, money laundering, and tax evasion after allegedly providing a competitive edge to Icelandic fishing company Samherji HF in return for bribes, causing the State losses of over N$300 million after governmental objective quotas were diverted.
