Staff Reporter
CORNELIUS Cedric Willemse (52), the former logistics and supply manager of the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (Namcor), has brought forth an application to stop the Prosecutor General’s efforts to send him back to jail.
This is after the Prosecutor General announced its intention to bring forth a High Court application to appeal against a decision by the lower magistrate’s court to grant Willemse bail.
Willemse was arrested on 8 July 2025 alongside several other Namcor executives in connection with an over N$400 million fraud and embezzlement case, in which they stood accused of lining their pockets with funds belonging to the state oil company via alleged illicit credit deals and bogus asset sales.
He faced 10 charges, which included corruptly using an office or position for gratification, corruptly accepting gratification, money laundering and failing to pay tax. The State alleged that Willemse received N$3.01 million from the fuel company Enercon Namibia, which was a client of the Namcor subsidiary Namcor Petroleum Trading and Distribution, in return for authorising the supply of fuel to Enercon above Namcor’s company credit limit.
Willemse’s lawyer, Borris Isaacks, who was one of the first lawyers to secure bail for an accused in the Namcor fraud case, has now brought forth an application challenging the legal grounds upon which the Prosecutor General can challenge Willemse being granted bail.
The Prosecutor General’s application for leave to appeal was brought in terms of Section 310(1), read with Section 310(2), of the Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977, and not under Section 65.
Section 65 of the Criminal Procedure Act does not itself authorise the Prosecutor General to appeal against a lower court’s decision granting bail. It regulates, principally, an appeal by an accused against the refusal of bail or the imposition of bail conditions.
The State’s application for leave to appeal was struck from the roll on 16 February 2026 for failure to file heads of argument.
The Prosecutor indicated that the State intended to apply for the reinstatement of that application.
Isaacks argued that Section 310 does not authorise an appeal against the granting of bail. “Section 310 applies to decisions in criminal proceedings properly so called; bail proceedings are neither civil nor criminal proceedings, but proceedings of a special or sui generis nature,” Isaacks posed.
The matter was postponed to 13 August 2026 for a case management conference.
BAIL APPEAL: Cedric Willemse. Photo: Contributed
