Mathews Hamutenya sues woman for N$300 000 over rape claim  

BUSINESSMAN Mathews Hamutenya is suing a Windhoek resident for N$300 000, claiming that she has falsely accused him of raping her 20 years ago.

• In a defamation case filed at the Windhoek High Court in May last year, Hamutenya, who is the founder and executive chairperson of the Millennium Investment Holdings group of companies, is alleging that the woman he is suing “falsely and maliciously” filed a charge of rape against him at Klein Windhoek Police Station in August 2024.

After the complaint against Hamutenya was investigated, a police docket was sent to the Office of the Prosecutor General, where it was decided in December 2024 not to prosecute him on the evidence contained in the docket.

Hamutenya is claiming that the woman’s allegations that he raped her during an incident that occurred in July 2006 are “wrongful and defamatory”, alternatively “false and defamatory”, and were made with the intention to defame him, injure his reputation and sully his good name.

He is also claiming that the allegations made by the women, whose name is being withheld because she was a complainant in a rape matter, implied that he “is a sexual deviant and is a danger to women”, “lacks moral fibre and integrity”, is manipulative or deceptive, is not a law-abiding citizen, and that he cannot be trusted personally or in business.

Hamutenya is suing the woman for N$300 000. He is also asking the court to order her to issue a public apology, in which she absolves him of the allegations she has made against him, in one edition of a national newspaper in Namibia.

The woman is opposing the legal action that Hamutenya is taking against her.

In a counterclaim filed at the court, the defendant is claiming N$50 000 from Hamutenya. This is based on an allegation that she suffered “damages to her emotional and physical integrity, dignity, privacy and reputation” and that she was traumatised when she had to recount the alleged rape while registering a case with the police.

The defendant also says in a witness statement filed at the court that the allegation about being raped that she made to a police officer was not made to defame Hamutenya, injure his reputation or sully him.

“The statement was used to exercise my right to dignity, privacy and freedom of expression in the protection of my rights,” the defendant says.

She further states that she cannot retract her allegations against Hamutenya or tender an apology to him, as the witness statement that she made to the police “is the truth”. According to the defendant, she “had always contemplated laying the criminal charge”, but postponed doing so as she thought about the effect it would have on her children and herself.

“I eventually had the courage to lay the criminal charge as it had all along affected me emotionally and psychologically,” she says in the witness statement filed at the court.

Judge Thomas Masuku started hearing Hamutenya’s testimony in the matter on Tuesday.

In a witness statement filed at the court, Hamutyenya alleges that the defendant laid the charge against him shortly after he had stopped helping her to pay instalments on her home mortgage.

Hamutenya says he denies the defendant’s allegations that he had raped her “in the strongest possible terms”.

“It is entirely false,” he states.

He says he and the defendant “had a brief sexual encounter, which was entirely consensual”.

As a businessman, “my credibility, integrity and professional reputation are central to my work”, Hamutenya says.

“My standing in the corporate and public spheres is an asset I have built over many years, often under substantial scrutiny associated with operating in sensitive, high-value sectors such as energy, finance and property development.”

He also says: “I consider ethical leadership essential, both for my own name and for the companies and individuals who place their trust in me.”

Hamutenya continues in his witness statement: “It is for these reasons that the defamatory statements made about me have caused significant harm. They strike at the core of the reputation I have spent years establishing. They have the potential to undermine public confidence in my leadership, create unwarranted suspicion about my business dealings, and inflict both personal and commercial damage.”

The hearing before Masuku is continuing.

Hamutenya is being represented by Doris Hans-Kaumbi.

The defendant is represented by Janita von Wielligh, instructed by Albert Piechazek.

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