'Fishrot' judge scathing of anti-graft unit

Top-ranking Namibians implicated in international corruption related to the country's lucrative fishing industry, have failed to have the search and seizure warrants issued against them set aside. The warrants, applied for by the anti-corruption commission, were issued in November and December 2019. Among the targets of the warrants were the former Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Bernhard Esau, and the former Minister of Justice, Sacky Shanghala. But, writes Carmel Rickard in her A Matter of Justice column on the Legalbrief site, the judge hearing the matter, Thomas Masuku, was highly critical of aspects of the commission's behaviour. One of the complaints against the commission in relation to the warrants was that certain documents were 'privileged and confidential'. The anti-corruption commission said the documents were 'confidential but not privileged' and there was thus no reason for them not to be seized and used in the matter, an attitude that the judge said 'horrified' him. The judge said it 'boggles the mind' that the commission did not follow the law that applied in a case where privilege was claimed. The commission's behaviour amounted to 'a shepherd becoming a wolf' and in this regard, the commission's officers acted 'despicably'.