•    Fails to deliver N$10 million loan agreement
•    N$113.5 million investment lost
•    120 jobs in limbo
•    Not registered with BIPA

By Jeremiah Ndjoze

A protracted legal battle between, High Power Holdings (PTY) Ltd (HPH), a South African mining company, and Namibian entity Imprint Investments (PTY) Ltd, has resulted in the loss of about 120 jobs, and financial losses that runs into hundreds of millions of Namibian dollars for the local enterprise - despite the matter having been struck of the court roll on numerous occasions. 
In court documents, HPH is hell-bent on recapturing 42.5 percent shares it previously owned in Imprint Investments (PTY) Ltd. The shares were absorbed by Imprint after HPH failed to honour its commitment to the former. HPH is further praying for the board resolutions of the 23 December 2021 meeting which decided, which nullified its ownership of the shares to be, as well as the reinstatement of its two directors on the board.

  
Imprint Investments’ in-house legal advisor, John Dias told Confidente that his clients maintain a steadfast view that HPH breached the very loan agreement, which was meant to grant it the shares, on three occasions, by dismally failing to pay the N$10 million into Imprint’s bank account.

“HPH never perfected the very agreement that was supposed to grant it access to the shares, had they performed. Due to their non-performance they have no rights to Imprint Investment, nor its assets, in this case the two exclusives prospecting licences (EPLs),” Dias stressed. He further maintained that HPH has no relief within the company laws of Namibia.

 
On his part, Imprint Investments’ Managing Director, Justus Stanley Veii, is of the opinion that HPH, through its lawyers, has been deliberately prolonging the litigation in order to derail his company’s investment trajectory. 
“[They] were doing this on purpose to disturb the investment process, which was under way, forcing the company to pay them a lump sum to settle, which is typical of unethical lawyers, a law firm that must never [be] allowed to practice law in this country,” Veii maintained.

 
His frustration comes after his company lost out on a Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) deal with Rui Cheng (Tianjin) Mineral Company Ltd, which he revealed was planning to take up an equity stake of 60% for an amount of N$113,500,000 (over N$113 million).

 
Confidente has learned that the two parties signed the investment agreement on 23 March 2023 and in the process Rui Cheng (Tianjun) Mineral Company Ltd appointed a local law firm to do due diligence on the transaction, which in turn red-flagged the Supreme Court cases, as such nullifying the deal.

Veii further maintained that efforts to confirm the legality - in terms of registration - of High Power Investment Holdings through BIPA, which would then ascertain its loca standi in local courts, proved futile. 
“It is only after the outcomes of the Supreme Court ruling that BIPA was able to confirm that High Power Holdings (PTY) Ltd, is not a registered entity in Namibia, therefore they do not have a ‘loca standi’ in the High Court or Supreme Court of Namibia,” Veii maintained. 

Confidente is in possession of a Supreme Court letter dated 14 May 2025, and addressed to lawyer Shafimana Shimakeleni of Shakwa Nyambe & Company Inc. suggesting that HPH was seen as not having obtained permission to appeal and in the absence “the matter cannot be set down for hearing as requested.”

On 25 June 2025, in Court documents addressed to Shimakeleni, it emerged that a Supreme Court bench composed of Justices, Peter Shivute, Hosea Angula and Dave Smuts ‘struck the matter off the roll.’

DEAL FROM HELL
The directors of Imprint Investments, and HPH are said to have entered into a Shareholders Agreement on 13 May 2020, after High Power Holdings purportedly received the 42.5 percent share certificate.  “In the agreement, in lieu of the 42.5 percent share, HPH was to provide a N$10 million interest free loan. [But] It never entered the bank account of Imprint Investments,” Veii revealed. Be that as it may, according to Veii, HPH embarked with the exploration of the company’s first of two Exclusive Prospecting Licences (EPLs) - EPL 3963 - which he said, the South African failed to deliver any significant exploration discovery. Imprint is said to have accrued a debt of N$4,6 million “after 12 months of [HPH] neglecting [its] fiduciary duties.”  It is further alleged that a special shareholders meeting to conclude the transaction between the entities was called on 23 December, with a 21-day notice and their lawyers wrote to the company “indicating their intention not to attend the meeting.”

It has emerged that as the fortunes were starting to change for Imprint Investments, which subsequently raised over N$4 million and successfully conducted an exploration program on the licence - EPL 3980, which according to Veii yielded massive resource discovery. 

“On this basis a loan was secured. [We] continued to build Maitland Manganese Mine and exported about 10,000 metric tonnes of the resource as part of the bulk sampling for market acceptance, and data analysis for the mine’s economic viability. The company managed to repay 35 percent (N$12 million) of the loan in three months,” Veii revealed.

“It is in view of this discovery and our performance that High Power Holdings lodged a case in the High Court, which was heard on 19 July 2022 and successfully defended. Another case was heard on 27 June 2023,” Veii revealed, adding that HPH dragged Imprint Investments to court on six different occasions - four to the High Court, and two to the Supreme Court. The matter has since been returned to the High Court and will be heard by Judge Esi Schimming-Chase on 5 October 2025.
However, Dias told Confidente that his team will not allow the case to be heard until HPH post security payments, in light of the company being non-Namibian. 

Questions sent to HPH Namibian legal representative Shifimana Shimakeleni and to BIPA’s spokesperson Romansia Kambuku, were not answered at the time of going to print.