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