Kora dirty dealings exposedPayments continued despite misgivings The Namibia Tourism Board is suing the organisers of the Kora All-Africa Music Awards for N$23.5 million plus 20% interest. The veil of secrecy surrounding the missing Kora millions has finally been lifted.Details have emerged of the payments that were made by the Namibia Tourism Board (NTB) for the lavish promotional package that was promised.
Court documents raise questions as to why payments were not stopped sooner, when there was clearly no evidence that the promised promotional material would be delivered.
The Kora All-Africa Music Awards have been mired in secrecy and controversy, especially after reports emerged accusing Ernst Adjovi of being a charlatan who uses the awards show to milk money from the host country''s government.
The High Court has scheduled mediation between the affected parties for 6 December, when it will be decided whether a legal battle will ensue in the courts or whether a settlement will be reached.
Judge Kobus Miller ordered that the mediation must be concluded by 13 December and that a final decision on the matter be brought to him on 26 January.
The Namibia Tourism Board (NTB) has sued Mundial Telecom Sarl, Adjovi and Tonata Shiimi for N$23.5 million – the sum it paid for the purchase of a ''Platinum Tourism Package'' which it never received. Mundial Telecom owns the rights to host the Kora Awards while Adjovi is the president of the company and Shiimi was the national director of the awards.
According to court documents the NTB concluded a written agreement on the tourism promotion package on 4 December with Mundial Telecom Sarl. The All-Africa Kora Music Awards ceremony was scheduled to be held on 20 March 2016 in Namibia.
The show was initially scheduled to take place on 13 December 2015, but was postponed.
Under the contract the NTB had to pay the N$23.5 million on or before 10 December.
However, the first payment of N$5 million was made on 22 December and a second payment of another N$5 million was made on 23 December. On 7 January 2016 another N$5 million was transferred and on 17 February N$8.5 million was transferred.
The money was paid into the bank account of Mundial Telecom in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
The agreement guaranteed that the promotional television clips featuring Namibia would be delivered to all participating African countries'' television stations by at least 20 January.
And, even though there was no evidence of these promotions taking place two months before the scheduled awards ceremony, the NTB continued to make payments on several occasions.
The court documents go into the details of what the promotional package entailed.
According to the agreement between NTB and Mundial Telecom the package consisted of 26 promotional video clips that were to be televised in all the participating countries.
These clips were supposed to be 60 seconds in duration and were to be shown two months before the awards ceremony. Therefore it should have been done in January at the latest.
The package also guaranteed that each promotional television clip would showcase the NTB with five-second visuals on the awards ceremony''s promotional television clips, while Mundial Telecom was to make available the promotional clips to at least 30 participating African countries.
The contract states that Mundial Telecom was to provide a report 60 days after the awards ceremony on the coverage of the ceremony and that was to include the number of countries in which the ceremony was broadcast.
The package also had to include six promotional clips of 30 seconds each that were to be aired during the live broadcast of the ceremony. These clips were to be produced and provided by the NTB.
Furthermore NTB was promised a prominent presence on the Kora website, with links to the NTB''s website. Five verbal mentions were to be made by the hosts during the live broadcast of the ceremony.
It was also agreed that NTB would be allocated two full pages in the Kora magazine and that it would receive about 300 seats at the Kora Awards for important guests.
According to the agreement, in the event that the ceremony did not take place in Namibia Mundial Telecom was to refund the amount paid by the NTB within 60 days.
The NTB charges that Mundial Telecom failed to deliver the promotion package, failed to hold the Kora Awards in Namibia or anywhere else, and used the funds paid for purposes other than those intended and agreed to between the parties.
According to the NTB it suffered contractual damages it is therefore claiming N$23.5 million plus 20% interest.
It says all the respondents are jointly liable to pay the contractual damages of N$23.5 million.
It is also asking for alternative relief and for the cost of the suit to be paid by the respondents.
Meanwhile, on the Kora Awards website it seems that Mondala Equatorial Guinea is being advertised as the country to be hosting the ceremony next year. However, no other information could be found about that.
It also appears that information about the 2016 Kora Awards has been deleted from the site. An error page is displayed when clicking on the relevant link.
ELLANIE SMIT