During his State of the Nation (SONA) speech in the National Assembly chamber on 17 April 2019, President Hage Geingob made the following statements:
“Furthermore, the Anti-Corruption Commission investigated 701 cases in 2018, of which 156 have been referred to the Prosecutor-General, with recommendation to prosecute. 49 of these have been finalized.”
It is unclear where the President got these figures, but the important figures in this section of the SONA are the following:
- 701 cases investigated in 2018;
- 156 referred to the Prosecutor-General for a decision to prosecute;
- 49 prosecutions have been finalised.
What we found, courtesy of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), is:
- 59 cases were investigated in 2018/19;
- 45 cases had been referred to the Prosecutor-General for a decision to prosecute;
- 39 cases referred are in court;
- 3 cases the PG declined to prosecute.
According to information provided by the ACC, by the end of the 2018/19 financial year (31 March 2019), there were 35 cases awaiting a decision by the Prosecutor-General, including investigations from previous years.
The president’s reference to the figures appears on page 14 of the 2019 State of the Nation speech, which can be accessed at the following link: http://209.88.21.83/documents/84084/826266/PresidentGeingobStateOfTheNationAddress2019.pdf/f34dfeb4-7f92-47b1-9c4f-05fe8bba028a?version=1.0