Deloitte helped Nchindo form TDC

BAME PIET
Staff Writer | Friday April 30, 2010 00:00

 

Yesterday, David Flicker, gave his evidence.  He is a former employee of Desert Secretarial Services, a former subsidiary of Deloitte and Touche that provided secretarial services with establishment of new companies.

He told the court that he processed the change of name of a shelf company known as Bokbuy Vergei to Tourism Development Consortium (Pty) Ltd around January 2001 at the request of the Debswana Mining Company.

He said that the processing started in January 2001 and he was made to believe that TDC (Pty) Ltd was a Debswana subsidiary. He said that they followed all the necessary steps to change the names and transfer of shares following Debswana instructions.

At some point he was instructed to transfer shares to the names of Louis Nchindo and Matome as TDC (Pty) Ltd shareholdersFlicker said that the final stage of process was done in October 2003 when Debswana came to collect the company records.  He said that since then he never heard from Debswana or what became of Tourism Development Consortium (Pty) Ltd as it was no longer of important to him. He said, however, that they have archives of all the companies they deal with.

Meanwhile, the defence team complained to Regional Magistrate, Lot Moroka, that the prosecution had wasted valuable time because they were disorganised. Advocate Craig Webster appealed to the prosecution to come with all their documentation in order and witnesses arranged properly in order to save time and expenses when the trial resumes in August.

Phuthego conceded that time was wasted but said it would take only a week to wrap up the case with the remaining 10 witnesses. It is not clear whether, Jacob Sesinyi, formerly accused and now state witness, would take the stand. At least four former members of former president Festus Mogae's cabinet are expected to testify for the defence team while three others are on the prosecution's list.

Mogae testified on Wednesday telling the court that his cabinet embraced the Debswana Tourism Project and that he was kept in the dark about the allocation of Plot 55720 to Louis Nchindo and Tourism Development Consortium (Pty) Ltd as a private entity independent from Debswana Mining Company.

He said that the allocation of all the plots for the Debswana Tourism Project was to be done with the input of cabinet members and the President because it was in conflict with many government land policies.