Former NamCor Managing Director Immanuel Mulunga was arrested this morning, alongside three other senior officials of the state-owned petroleum company.
ACC Director General Paulus Noa confirmed the arrests and told NBC News that further arrests are expected during the week.
The arrests are part of an ongoing corruption investigation led by the Anti-Corruption Commission, allegedly linked to two transactions during Mulunga's tenure at the helm of NamCor that triggered allegations of fraud, misconduct, and financial mismanagement.
One of the transactions under scrutiny is a controversial N$123 million payment made in 2022 to Sungara Energies, a joint venture between NamCor, Angola's Sonangol, and Sequa Petroleum.
Mulunga allegedly authorised the transfer without the full approval of NamCor's board.
At that time, the board allegedly granted only conditional approval for a N$10 million contribution related to this transaction.
It is alleged that Mulunga bypassed governance procedures and released the full amount to cover Sequa Petroleum's delayed deposit.
Although a disciplinary hearing in August 2023 cleared Mulunga of wrongdoing due to insufficient evidence, and despite the ACC stating that he may have acted in the national interest to safeguard Namibia's stake in an international oil venture, the transaction has remained the focus of investigations.
The second case implicates Mulunga in an unapproved N$53 million acquisition of fuel storage and delivery assets from Enercon Namibia, a company linked to the Namibian Defence Ministry.
It later emerged that the assets may not have belonged to Enercon at all but to the Namibian Defence Force, casting doubt on the legality of the deal.
The board later accused Mulunga of gross negligence, claiming he had ignored procurement procedures and relied on a flawed internal evaluation process to justify the acquisition.
The Enercon deal eventually collapsed, and NamCor is now owed more than N$114 million in unpaid fuel debt.
The identities of the three senior NamCor officials arrested alongside Mulunga have not yet been disclosed, as investigations are ongoing.