WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2010-04-06 Time: 14:00:02 Posted By: News Poster
By Werner Menges
AN Anti-Corruption Commission investigation into the appointment of a Zimbabwean academic as a management training consultant for the Ministry of Works and Transport was dealt a blow in the High Court in Windhoek at the end of last week.
Having for the past month been the target of an investigation by the ACC, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Works and Transport, George Simataa, on Thursday took an urgent application against the ACC, its Director, Paulus Noa, the Prosecutor General and Windhoek Magistrate Duard Kesslau to the High Court.
The ACC and Noa opposed the application, but Simataa and his lawyer, Sisa Namandje, emerged from court as the winners of this round in Simataa’s showdown with the ACC.
Judge Marlene Tommasi issued an order declaring that two search warrants that ACC investigators obtained from Magistrate Kesslau on March 1 and 10 respectively are invalid and unlawful.
She also set aside the warrants and any step that may have been taken on the basis of the warrants.
She further ordered that all items – such as computers and documents – that had been seized from Simataa’s office and his home in Windhoek should be returned to him.
The ACC and Noa were ordered to pay Simataa’s legal costs in the case.
The ACC was acting on a story that was published in a weekly tabloid near the end of February when it launched an investigation into the appointment of Zimbabwean management expert Lovemore Mbigi, allegedly on a N$2 million contract and without any tender process having preceded Mbigi’s appointment, to carry out training work for the Ministry of Works and Transport.
Mbigi is a supervisor of Simataa in his studies for a PhD degree in business administration through the National University of Science and Technology in Zimbabwe.
The tabloid story “was highly defamatory and incorrect in several respects”, Simataa states in an affidavit filed with the High Court as part of his urgent application.
Simataa attacked the validity and legality of the search warrants on a number of grounds.
The warrants were both addressed to “All authorised officers”. The simple fact that the warrants were not directed to specified authorised officers already makes them unlawful, Simataa claimed.
Except for referring to “a corrupt practice” that was claimed to have taken place, the warrants did not identify any specific offence under the Anti-Corruption Act that was suspected to have been committed, Simataa also claimed.
He argued that on that basis alone it could not be said that the magistrate was entitled to issue the search warrants, as he could not with certainty have believed that a specific offence could have been committed.
He further claimed that the warrants were issued on the basis of purported affidavits that had been placed before the Magistrate. However, none of these alleged affidavits were properly deposed to under oath, making the warrants unlawful on that ground alone, Simataa argued.
Simataa also charged that the warrants were “impermissibly overbroad, general and vague”.
The search conducted after the warrants were obtained was in itself unlawful, because ACC agents acted beyond the scope of the warrants and also seized “private and confidential items not connected to the investigation”, Simataa claimed. Except for computers that were seized from his office at the Ministry of Works and Transport, ACC agents also removed two computers from his house, Simataa informed the court.
The computers seized from his home also stored information on “urgent private business interests, which has nothing to do with the investigation”, Simataa stated.
He charged that his constitutional right to privacy was being violated.
“Both searches were done in accordance with the terms of the search warrants and with strict regard for decency and order and regard for (Simataa’s) right to dignity and privacy,” Noa responded to Simataa’s complaints in an affidavit also filed with the court.
Noa argued that the search warrants were lawfully issued and that the searches were afterwards lawfully executed.
He acknowledged that the ACC may have seized information from Simataa that is personal and has nothing to do with the investigation. However, Noa stated, “it would be impossible for the ACC to perform its functions in terms of the Act without some form of inconvenience to the person being investigated and whose property is seized”.
Noa stated: “As a result of the global outcry against corruption, Namibia has increased its efforts to fight corruption. This led to the establishment of the ACC as an important tool in the fight against corruption.
“The limitation of an individual’s right to privacy is thus justifiable in certain circumstances. In my view, this case justifies such a limitation of the Applicant’s right to privacy.”
Charlene Potgieter represented the ACC and Noa with the hearing of the case before Judge Tommasi.
Original Source: 
Original date published: 6 April 2010
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201004060741.html?viewall=1