Through interviews with key witnesses, along with documents and cables from key ministries in Canada and Namibia, The Canada Files has discovered the unlawful dealings behind a massive pump and dump scam from a Canadian oil company, Recon Africa. The project had the diplomatic backing of the Canadian government, ostensibly for ‘development’. Yet in reality, it was supported on behalf of a key Liberal ally, Will Adams, the former lobbyist for Recon Africa. The operation was saturated with corruption, political nepotism, and fraud on all levels.
Existing laws in Namibia were ignored outright to allow the project, human impact was shamelessly ignored, and whistleblowers who refused to take bribes were threatened and harassed to the indifference (and tacit support) of the Canadian and Namibian governments. Even small-time investors in the project were defrauded.
The Canada Files reached out to consumer rights activist and Canadian Rob Parker, who has been active in dealing with the effects of the ReconAfrica project since the drilling began in March 2021. The Canada Files also reached out to Rinaani Musata, a member of the Economic Social Justice Trust (ESJT), and Moronga Amnatenya Thomas, the head of the Okavango Conservancy.
According to Rob Parker, ReconAfrica was originally going to base their act of fraud on shale gas, using a fake media campaign headed by James Stafford. The project was going to be a search for shale gas in the Okavango basin in Botswana and Namibia, using fracking.
However, fracking was declined by the Namibian government, so Recon Africa ‘re-evaluated’ their claim in the region to an ‘estimated’ 120 billion barrels of petroleum, instead of shale gas. Yet the region they obtained the license for was the shallow end of the already explored region, making the possibility of finding any valuable resource in the region virtually nonexistent.
According to Parker and Thomas, Recon Africa obtained a petroleum exploration license to drill using an incomplete Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) on a national holiday. This being Heroes’ Day, August 26th, the day Namibia was founded post-Apartheid.
On national holidays, all government offices, particularly commerce related ones, are supposed to be closed, making the timing rather suspect. Moreover, the Namibian government under the ruling SWAPO party is infamous for corruption scandals and collaborating with NATO’s colonial adventures in the region. All three of the people we interviewed suspected bribery within the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Tourism on that basis. (more...)
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