|
|
Namibia: Mbok Has Estate Agency of Ex-Partner Closed Down
 |
 |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
The Namibian (Windhoek)
6 May 2008
Posted to the web 6 May 2008
Werner Menges
Windhoek
A NASTY falling-out between would-be property developer Antoine Mbok and a former business partner, estate agent Daphné Swanepoel, spilled over into the High Court last week.
A complaint that Mbok had laid against Swanepoel in late April last year resulted in a one-sided disciplinary hearing by the Namibia Estate Agents Board a month ago and a decision that in effect prohibits Swanepoel from continuing to work as an estate agent in Namibia.
The disciplinary hearing, which took place in Swanepoel's absence, ended with a decision that Swanepoel's estate agent fidelity fund certificate, which allows her to receive money from the public on behalf of clients, was being withdrawn.
Swanepoel said she was in hospital at the time.
As a result, estate agency Pam Golding Properties, of which Swanepoel is the Chief Executive Officer in Namibia, was forced to close its doors in Namibia from April 14.
On Wednesday last week, Swanepoel approached the High Court with an urgent application in which she asked that the Estate Agents Board's decision to withdraw her fidelity fund certificate should be put on hold pending the outcome of an appeal that she has lodged against that decision.
Not convinced that the case passed the test of being urgent, Judge Kato van Niekerk dismissed Swanepoel's application with costs.
Mbok was the only witness to testify at Swanepoel's disciplinary hearing on April 3.
According to a record of the disciplinary hearing that Swanepoel filed with the High Court as part of her unsuccessful application against the Estate Agents Board, Mbok accused her of allegedly giving newspapers confidential information on a low-cost housing project, under the name Dignity Housing Initiative, that he was trying to get off the ground.
Once the newspapers published reports allegedly based on this information, he was seen as a conman, his reputation in Namibia was ruined, and his project was doomed, Mbok claimed.
He alleged that Swanepoel spread this information about him in order to steal the housing project from him and take it over as a project that she and another business partner were to run for their own benefit.
Mbok claimed that Swanepoel had betrayed him.
The ultimate punishment would have been appropriate for such betrayal, he hinted during his testimony at the hearing in Swanepoel's absence: "That's high treason and if you were in the military, she should (be) put to death."
Mbok laid three charges of contraventions of the Estate Agents Act against Swanepoel.
The first was that she had allegedly provided or transmitted confidential information without just case about Mbok and Dignity Housing Initiative to The Namibian and Informanté during April last year.
Mbok secondly accused Swanepoel of allegedly not having given a proper account of acts she performed on their behalf to him and Dignity Housing Initiative within 30 days after she was asked to do so.
He lastly accused her of allegedly having failed to protect his and his housing project's interest by allegedly founding a company in competition with his and by negotiating with a South African investor to take over his low-cost housing project.
Swanepoel told the High Court in an affidavit that she was in hospital on the day of the disciplinary hearing, and that she had informed the Estate Agents Board in writing beforehand that she would not be able to attend a hearing scheduled for that date.
Having learned afterwards that the hearing nevertheless proceeded and that she had been found guilty, fined N$3 000 and her fidelity fund certificate had been withdrawn, Swanepoel claims she then was met with various delays on the part of the Estate Agents Board and its manager, Phelem Like, as she tried to get an appeal hearing set up.
She finally got an appeal hearing scheduled for Monday last week - or thought she did, only to be told that the Board would not be able to hear an appeal, and that it could not tell her when an appeal hearing would be able to take place, Swanepoel said.
According to the Board, a vacancy in its ranks, which has to be filled by the Minister of Trade and Industry, meant there were not enough members left on the Board not involved in the initial disciplinary hearing and who as a result could hear an appeal.
In a statement also filed with the High Court, Swanepoel stated that she believes Mbok had come to Namibia "with big dreams and without any money to back his projects".
|
He then got Pam Golding Properties to assist him with the marketing and sales of his planned property developments, while he in fact did not have the money to carry out these developments, she has charged in return.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 The Namibian. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
