“It (the national honours) does not reflect the broader Namibian character. He said the fact that the recipients were in exile does not mean they contributed a lot to independence. Kamwanyah said it appeared it was a national honours ceremony for Swapo and former Plan fighters. Kamwanyah said the argument would be that she was not found guilty and is therefore eligible for the honour. Lameck and her co-accused were acquitted in the Windhoek High Court in September 2019, after they successfully objected to the admissibility of a substantial part of the evidence which the Anti-Corruption Commission collected during its investigation of the case. Lameck and Mokaxwa were also accused of having defrauded Swapo-owned Namib Contract Haulage, where Mokaxwa was employed and Lameck was a company director, by inflating the price it had to pay for lorries and buses imported from China in 2007. The charges against Lameck, her business partner Kongo Mokaxwa, and Chinese citizen Yang Fan included a count of fraud in connection with the transaction in which the ministry bought X-ray scanning equipment at a total cost of US$55,3 million (then about N$477 million) from Chinese company Nuctech, represented by Yang, in 2009. While working for the Public Service Commission, Lameck found herself on the wrong side of the law after she was arrested for allegedly defrauding the finance ministry through a multimillion-dollar transaction in which Namibia's government bought Chinese-manufactured security scanners at inflated prices in 2009. Lameck was recognised for moving up in the ranks of the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (Plan) to become a political commissar during the struggle for independence.Īccording to the citation for the award, Lameck contributed to the liberation and independence of Namibia, to the country's social development, and to quality service delivery. She was awarded the Most Distinguished Order of Namibia, fifth class. Lameck and 31 other individuals were awarded for “significantly” contributing to Namibia's liberation struggle. Being guilty or not guilty does not always tell the whole story of what transpired, especially in complex corruption-related cases,” he said yesterday.
“We must also know that cases are technical by nature and do not tell the whole story when someone is acquitted. However, the decision to bestow national honours on Lameck has now been questioned by political analyst Ndumba Kamwanyah, who said in other democracies she would not be honoured, although she was acquitted. FORMER Public Service Commission (PSC) member Teckla Lameck, who was acquitted in 2019 of defrauding the Ministry of Finance in a transaction worth more than N$470 million, is among 32 individuals who were conferred national honours by president Hage Geingob on Wednesday.Īmong the attributes of those who were honoured was that they “display a high level of integrity”.