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R 211105Z AUG 09
FM AMEMBASSY WINDHOEK
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 0719
INFO SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY
AMEMBASSY OTTAWA 
AMEMBASSY PRETORIA 
AMCONSUL CAPE TOWN 
AMCONSUL JOHANNESBURG

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