Namibia's Supreme Court awards damages to SA man

Namibia's Supreme Court has ordered the Prosecutor-General (PG) to pay N$150 000 (R150 000) to a SA man acquitted on charges of trafficking in persons after the state’s case crumbled during his trial. The court made the order on an appeal by SA citizen Pieter Groenewald against a High Court judgment in which his claim against the PG was dismissed in October 2021, The Namibian reports. In the Supreme Court’s judgment, Chief Justice Peter Shivute, Deputy Chief Justice Petrus Damaseb and Appeal Judge Dave Smuts found that there was sufficient evidence on which a prosecutor based at Rundu decided to prosecute Groenewald on charges of trafficking in persons and attempted trafficking. However, the court also found that the prosecutor should not have continued the prosecution against Groenewald when crucial state witnesses denied allegations made in their witness statements, which were recorded by the police, and exonerated Groenewald on half of the 19 charges he was facing. The prosecutor continued with Groenewald’s trial in the Rundu Regional Court until Groenewald and his then fiancée, Elmarie Greeff – who was also prosecuted – were both found not guilty after the state’s case had collapsed. Groenewald and Greeff then both sued the Minister of Safety & Security and the PG for alleged unlawful arrest and malicious prosecution. Groenewald’s claim was dismissed in the Windhoek High Court in October 2021, but Greeff’s claim for alleged malicious prosecution succeeded and the court ordered that the PG should pay N$50 000 (R50 000) to her.

Groenewald and Greeff were arrested after Groenewald had visited the western part of the Zambezi region to recruit 12 men from the Khwe San community to be employed by him in SA in his close corporation, Wildlife Investigation and Protection Services CC, as trackers and game rangers. The Namibian reports that the Chief Justice, who wrote the Supreme Court’s judgment, recounted that according to an initial intelligence report received by the police, Groenewald was recruiting young men for military training in SA. ‘It was, therefore, not surprising that the police approached the matter with a heightened sense of security, albeit tinged with a dose of overzealousness,’ Shivute remarked. In the charges against Groenewald and Greeff, the state alleged that they recruited and transported people from the Khwe community for the purpose of exploitation, which is an offence in terms of Namibia’s Prevention of Organised Crime Act. During the trial, state witnesses who had worked for Groenewald’s business in SA retracted allegations of financial exploitation and mistreatment made against him in their police witness statements. This left ‘the state’s case perilous and in a state of confusion’, Shivute said.