BIO NOTE: ZACKEY NUJOMA

C O N F I D E N T I A L WINDHOEK 000304 AF/S FOR PHAEDRA GWYN, INR/A FOR RITA BYRNES E.O. 12958: DECL: 07302019 TAGS: PINR PGOV PREL MNUC EINV KNNP IR CA WA SUBJECT: BIO NOTE: ZACKEY NUJOMA REF: A. A. OTTAWA 639 ¶B. B. SIKO-PLUMB EMAIL Classified By: Ambassador Dennise Mathieu for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (SBU) Sakaria "Zackey" Nefungo Nujoma was born in 1957 to Sam Nujoma and Kovombo Theopoldine Katjimune. He is the youngest surviving son of Namibia's former president and founding father as well as the brother to Deputy Justice Minister Uutoni Nujoma, the only other surviving child of Sam Nujoma. According to open source reporting, Nujoma was once a member of the Namibian National Central Intelligence Service. Currently he is a businessman with mining interests, including the uranium and the diamond sectors. He is reported to be his father's business manager. Nujoma received training as a geologist in Germany (B.Sc. Geology, Freiburg University of Mining and Technology). He spent most of his childhood with his mother's Herrero family, and thus he is more fluent in Herrero than in his father's native Oshiwambo tongue. He is married with children. ¶2. (SBU) Much of what has been published on Nujoma was written by John Grobler, a Namibian investigative journalist who has written a number of exposes on corruption. He won the 2007 CNN African Freelance Journalist of the Year Award for a story alleging the Sicilian Mafia was linked to (Zackey) Nujoma and Namibian diamonds. According to Grobler, Nujoma and Namibian lawyer CJ Gouws controlled two off-the-shelf companies, Avila Investments and Marbella Investments. Gouws sold both firms to Nujoma, who wanted to use them to apply for diamond licenses. In 2005, Avila and Marbella obtained licenses to buy and cut diamonds in Namibia. The full ownership of these two companies was subsequently transferred to an offshore company, Diamond Ocean Enterprises Limited, registered in the British Virgin Islands (BVI),a popular tax haven. ¶3. (SBU) Grobler maintains that due to the BVI's banking secrecy laws, which prevent disclosure, it is not clear who controls Diamond Ocean. However, he claims that one of the directors of Avila, Pietro Palazzolo, also known as Peter von Palace-Kolbatschenko, is a younger brother of Vito Palazzolo, also known as Roberto von Palace-Kolbatschenko. Vito has been widely linked with corrupting government officials in South Africa. Pietro appears to have a clean record, but is considered to be part of his brother's operations. ¶4. (SBU) The Namibian Diamond Act forbids the transfer of any diamond license or controlling interests in companies holding such licenses without written permission from the Minister of Mines and Energy. Grobler's story states that the Namibian Diamond Commissioner confirmed that neither his office nor the office of the Minister ever gave written approval for the transfer of control or ownership of the license-holding companies to the BVI company. ¶5. (SBU) Grobler alleges that Nujoma holds an interest in Nu Diamonds (Pty) Ltd, which is one of 11 Namibia-based manufacturers that receive rough diamonds from Namibia Diamond Trading Company (NDTC) to cut and polish locally. His three-year contract reportedly ends in 2011. ¶6. (C) Nujoma's uranium venture appears to have begun in 2007 with the establishment of Ancash Limited, Pty. This venture was launched with several other politically well-connected figures, including Namibia,s Ambassador to Cuba, Grace Ushona. Nujoma made Ancash's initial application for uranium exploratory licenses (EPLs) in 2007. In its application, Ancash demonstrated that it was backed financially by Mega Diamonds Development, Pty, based in the BVIs and Natural Earth, based in Hong Kong. Mega Diamonds was to hold 60 percent and Nujoma 40 percent, but eventually Mega Diamonds acquired 90 percent and Nujoma retained 10 percent. ¶7. (SBU) In 2007, Ancash received six uranium EPLs, including the rights to Namibia's Valencia deposit. However, Ancash and all of its EPLs were subsequently sold to Forsys, a registered Canadian mining company. Currently Forsys Metals claims on its website that it retains 100% ownership in the Valencia deposit, for which it received a mining license in August 2008. Belgian/DRC entrepreneur George Arthur Forrest is in the process of trying to acquire Forsys Metals through his company George Forrest International Afrique (GFI). In August 2009, the Canadian government put a hold on the sale (per ref A). Valencia, located southwest of Usakos and northwest of the Rossing Uranium mine, has been known to contain uranium deposits since the 1970s. The Government of Namibia issued a mining license for the Valencia mine in 2008, and Forsys issued an upgraded resource estimate for the mine in February 2009, which put measured and indicated resources at 27,700 tons of U308. Planned production is 1,400 tons per year of U308. The estimated cost to bring Valencia into production is USD 154 million. ¶8. (C) Nujoma and his father are rumored to be interested in developing mining partnerships with the Chinese. MATHIEU