Former Tele 2 boss Ockhuizen claims N$4.7m debt settled

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FORMER Managing Director of the now defunct Tele Two, Welbert Ockhuizen still owes Namibia’s leading cellular service provider MTC more than N$740 000 and the Development Bank of Namibia (DBN) a total of N$4.7 million, with the latter now having classified the debt as a “loss”.Albertus Aochamub, MTC’s Manager for Corporate Services told Informanté that the matter (the Ockhuizen case) is currently in the hands of the company’s lawyers but could not divulge further information. “

It is handled by our lawyers, but since the case is sub judice I really don’t want to speculate on it,” he said.In the case of the DBN debt, Joy Sasman, DBN’s Manager for Marketing and Development Services, said Ockhuizen’s debts were written off on 6 July this year after a consensus was reached that such debts were uncollectible and that DBN’s continued search for the money might cost the Bank dearly.

Ockhuizen, who now works for NamWater as a senior manager, however denied owing MTC and DBN any money. In the case of MTC, he said the money was paid back in full in March this year. “I owe them not even a single cent”.He said that his family had gone through difficult times because of the pressure imposed on them by the debts. “I actually have paid more than N$740 000 because I had to also pay for legal fees that were involved,” he insisted.

On the DBN debt which dates back to 2002 when he borrowed more than N$4.7 million to consolidate Tele Two’s start up capital during its infancy, Ockhuizen brushed-off Sasman’s disclosures that the Bank had declared the debt a loss saying the DFN from which the money was borrowed sold Tele Two’s movable property and assets to a Danish-based company which subsequently shipped them off to Uganda.

“What the DBN told you is not a true reflection of the situation,” Ockhuizen said adding that the company property that got auctioned-off was valued at about N$8.2 million.

In July 2005, the DFN’s assets, liabilities, rights and obligations were transferred to the DBN, and Ockhuizen’s debts were among the liabilities transferred to DBN.

Despite Ockhuizen’s insistence that the Bank recovered its money through the auctioning of Tele Two’s property at N$8 million, emerging evidence shows that in October 2005 when DFN was no longer operational, Ockhuizen’s debts, which by that time were transferred to DBN, were still standing at N$4.7 million.And according to Sasman,

“The amount was written off in conjunction with DBN’s external auditors …”

She explained that the decision to cancel Ockhuizen;s debts was taken in line with the Loss Section of Determination 2 of the Banking Institutions Act.

This section of the Act which was availed to Informanté and states: “Loans, or other assets, which are considered uncollectible or of such little value that their continuance as a bankable asset is not warranted, shall be classified ‘loss’. Loss classification does not mean there is no recovery or salvage value, rather it is not practical or appropriate to defer writing-off the asset even though partial recovery may be realised in the future.

Now me is just wondering who these external auditors were? Maybe our friend Peter Carlson's company? Swart Angula something? Same guys involved in the rugby skandaal?