Hango Defies Cabinet

Toivo Ndjebela

31 May 2011

Windhoek — The Government Institutions Pension Fund (GIPF) has dished out a N$450 million loan to South African firm Safland, in total defiance of a standing Cabinet directive that no new loans should be issued by the fund.

New Era can exclusively reveal that the GIPF was cowed into releasing the N$450 million after the Pretoria-based commercial property brokerage firm threatened to sue the beleaguered fund.

Prior to the October 2010 Cabinet decision to stop new loan disbursements from the GIPF, the fund had already committed the money to Safland although no final approval was made.

Now Safland, represented locally by businessman Ranga Haikali, claims that it would suffer losses if the GIPF complies with the Cabinet directive not to approve new loans.

Interestingly, Haikali, who on more than one occasion, received money from the controversial Development Capital Portfolio (DCP), a now defunct GIPF loan scheme, is a director in Safland.

GIPF Chief Executive Officer Primus Hango confirmed yesterday Safland would receive the hefty loan after approval was granted recently in this regard.

Asked whether this decision would not be in breach of a high-level Cabinet decision to halt the issuance of all new loans, Hango arrogantly replied: “I don’t get instructions from Cabinet.”

He said he received instructions from the GIPF board of trustees to release the money to the South African outfit.

“I can confirm that we have signed with Safland. I don’t know whether they got the money yet, but we have signed,” Hango told New Era yesterday.

Cabinet last year ordered Prime Minister Nahas Angula to “instruct the GIPF board of trustees to suspend, with immediate effect, signing of any contracts, the disbursement of funds/loans, which had not been disbursed by the 7th October 2010”.

Approached for comment yesterday, Angula confirmed that the Cabinet directive “still stands”, despite the GIPF having approved Safland’s loan.

“They (GIPF) told me that Saf-land wants to sue them. I have forwarded all necessary documents to the Attorney General after which I will brief Cabinet,” Angula said.

The decision by the GIPF to bow to Safland’s demand, could trigger similar requests by six other companies to which the GIPF committed loans worth N$1.8 billion, through the Unlisted Investment Policy scheme, which replaced the DCP.

These are Botswana’s Letshego to which the GIPF intended to give N$100 million, Preferred Management Services (N$250 million), Sanlam Investment Management (N$250 million), Old Mutual Investment Group (N$350 million), Königstein (N$200 million) and National Housing Enterprise (N$100 million). The new twist in the marathon GIPF saga will surely put to test the powers of the Prime Minister and indeed those of Cabinet.

It also throws into question the level of commitment of government to getting to the bottom of the GIPF debacle, which already has left over N$660 million of workers’ pension untraceable.

Talk is rife that some senior officials at the GIPF have vested interests in Safland, but this could not be confirmed independently.

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