A city Councilwoman in the Namibian capital claims that a local politician offered her a bribe to ensure that Chinese tech giant Huawei wins an exclusive contract to build a 5G telecommunications network in Windhoek, Al Jazeera reports.
Brunhilde Cornelius made the allegations in a written statement to police on June 19. She is the General Secretary of the opposition Rally for democracy and progress (RDP) party, and said the bribe was offered by Nicanor Njoze, another RDP member who is the party’s election Director. Ndzose allegedly worked on behalf of his nephew Recliff Kanjiriomuini, also known as “Minge”, head of the Windhoek city ICT Department (COW).
Cornelius claims that Ndzos referred to a random Fund of 40 million NAD ($2.4 million) available to potential beneficiaries of the deal, which will grant Huawei exclusive rights to develop infrastructure for the 5g telecommunications network.
Following her position earlier this year to the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the COW city council and Huawei, Cornelius claims she was offered 5-6 million NAD ($300,000 – $360,000) to drop her objections and allow the city council to approve the signing of the MoU.
According to Cornelius, Joseph told her that she could receive a payment in exchange for refusing to sign the MoU with Huawei. Ndzose allegedly told Cornelius that his nephew was running a deal with Huawei. Kanjiriomuini allegedly enlisted Ndzose’s support , knowing that he was a member of the same political party as Cornelius, to persuade her to accept a bribe and allow her to sign the MoU, according to Cornelius.
There is no evidence that Huawei knows about these events. Cornelius States in written testimony that after Ndzose’s alleged offer, she reported an attempt to bribe the police, who equipped her with hidden recording devices for future meetings with Kanjiriomuini and Ndzose.
Kanjiriomuini said that there is no evidence that he informed Ms. Cornelius of any individuals profiting from the Huawei project, and claimed that Cornelius had reasons to misrepresent this position.
Earlier, antiсorr. media reported that in Algeria, Huawei was banned from bidding for government contracts because of its chief Executive, who was convicted of bribery. Huawei has been investigating allegations of bribery in Zambia, where it tried to enter into an expensive contract to build cell towers in rural areas. In the Solomon Islands, he was caught offering the ruling party millions of dollars in exchange for an underwater contract for fiber-optic cable. And there have been half a dozen other defendants in recent years.
