Reverend naholo strikes back: Response to the false accusations made

[Oneword]

Reproduced verbatim from the original .pdf version

REVEREND NAHOLO STRIKES BACK: INTRODUCTORY REMARKS BY PHIL YA NANGOLOH*, NSHR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

February 9 2010, Protea Hotel Fuerstenhof, Windhoek


Good morning ladies and gentlemen, comrades and compatriots.

Today is a very important day in Namibia’s constitutional history for two reasons. One, on this given day, exactly 20 years ago, the Namibian Constitution was adopted by consensus following a marathon 80-day negotiation process among and between Namibia’s political parties. Secondly, the Constitution contains an inextricable Bill of Rights guaranteeing justice, equality, liberty and solidarity in respect of each and every citizen.

Hence, we thank you very much for reacting positively to our invitation to attend this very important Media Briefing. This is the first press conference ever to be sponsored by us in 2010. As you know, you have been invited to this rare Media Briefing featuring the response by the Reverend Festus Naholo to certain offensive accusations1 leveled against him and a colleague by two highest-ranking citizens of our country, viz. former President Dr. Sam Nujoma and his successor President Lucas Hifikepunye Pohamba. Hence, the special significance of this Media Briefing.

Reverend Naholo is, for all practical intents and purposes, a hero of the liberation struggle for Namibian independence. Over the last 35 years, or so, he has acted in various capacities to help create conducive conditions for Namibia’s national independence as well as socio-economic well-being for the country. He has successfully, indeed, accomplished that mission.

To many of you this Media Briefing might merely be an opportunity for Reverend Naholo to make an ad hoc reply to the aforesaid accusations. However, to us in the democracy, good governance and human rights field, and as the only organization which has over the last 20 years relentlessly, fearlessly and impartially campaigned for the establishment of a national truth and reconciliation commission to address the unfinished business of past gross violations of human rights on both sides, this Media Briefing is viewed, not only as an integral part and parcel of that campaign, but also of as indicator for a growing trend in favor of glasnost and openness about our deplorable past.

As you might recall recently and while addressing a huge crowd of residents at Walvis Bay, Reverend Naholo also made a rare clarification as to who should be held responsible for sending over 1 600 PLAN fighters to their death or around April 1 1989.

Furthermore, for us there is another dimension to this issue: The reply by Reverend Naholo makes a significant contribution to the equally growing trend in this country where brave and fearless sons and daughters of our soil are eager to speak out openly, and, in so doing to exercise their inalienable right to freedom of expression and opinion. Suffice it to point out here that the promotion of the right to freedom of expression and opinion is, of course, one the principal reasons upon which we justify our existence both as an organization and as individuals.

This Media Briefing should also be seen as the indicator of the ever growing recognition, not only among the youth population of this country, but also among our senior citizens and leaders, of the positive role the Namibian human rights organization has been playing in the struggle for a culture of democracy and its by products.

Hence, on behalf of our Board of Directors and Management, I would like to highly commend Reverend Naholo, as I hereby do, for his rare courage to take the bull by its horns and to speak out, not only against the specific accusations hurled against him, but also against the growing culture of hate expression, character assassination, scape-goating and obfuscation2 as well as numerous forms of political intolerance in this country.

After reading his replying speech (downloadable from Namibia's National Human Rights Organisation), Reverend Naholo will entertain questions from the floor, of course, through me as chairperson of this event, before posing your question to the Reverend Naholo and or making any comment, please identify yourselves, by indicating for which organizations or any other capacity in which you are speaking. In the meantime, Reverend Naholo, the floor is yours.









RESPONSE TO THE FALSE ACCUSATIONS MADE AGAINST REVEREND FESTUS NAHOLO AND NGHININGILWANDUBO KASHUME BY PRESIDENT LUCAS HIFIKEPUNYE POHAMBA AT THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF KALAHARI HOLDINGS (PTY) LTD HELD IN WINDHOEK, NAMIBIA, ON DECEMBER 3 2009



Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press, Compatriots, Friends and Comrades




In the SWAPO Party they called “elements” anyone who is out of favour with the top-brass. I

never said anything of such sort!


They also labelled “enemy agents” all those who disagree with the powers-that-be. I kept quiet.

Then, when they came for me, and accused me of theft and self-enrichment, I was puzzled with disbelieve.

For eight years, since 2002, I waited for a retraction of the aforesaid accusations and for an apology, but to no avail.

This was not possible, because to them I am an “element” or even an “enemy agent”. Apparently I have neither value nor human flesh and feelings.

True liberation fighters who disagreed with them were and are rather being subjected to senseless accusations and vilification from the assortment of all shades, by those who really hated the liberation struggle, but, by crooked means, have now infiltrated the former liberation movement to seize power in cahoots with the Omusati Clique.

On December 3 2009, Mr. Lucas Hifikepunye Pohamba, the President of Namibia and SWAPO Party, made dishonest, deceitful, contradictory, highly slanderous and offensive accusations against my person and that of Comrade Nghiningilwandubo Kashume. This is
despite the decisive role we both had played in the creation and management of SWAPO Party commercial and business enterprises.

When President Pohamba came up with the malicious allegations of “looting SWAPO” against me, Reverend Naholo, and Comrade Kashume, I pondered and recalled the saying: “Your accuser is more dangerous than your killer”. Lucas Pohamba provoked and dehumanised me. This is uncalled for, and it cannot be allowed to stand!

These malicious accusations were first levelled at me by former President Sam Nujoma in

2002. It is beyond all human understanding that these cruel, inhuman and ruthless powers that be, should come back after 8 years to scratch scars and reopen deep festering wounds they have inflicted on me, to justify their evil and diabolic deeds. For much too long, since Nujoma’s accusations, which have a devastating effect on my family, I kept faith, hope and silence. Today, through this statement and under the auspices of this country’s human rights organization, I decided to break my long silence and respond to the painful and atrocious accusations. I am now striking back!

In making such paraphernalia of lies, President Pohamba has simply exposed his unremitting ignorance about the complex issues of economics, finance and sound business management. To accuse us of having “looted” SWAPO and SWAPO Party companies is deceitful and expediently Machiavellian.

WE BUILT SWAPO PARTY’S BUSINESS EMPIRE


Mr. Lucas Hifikepunye Pohamba and his mentor, Samuel Daniel Nujoma, ought to appreciate and give credit to me and Comrade Kashume for the leading role we had played; turning the residential properties and other assets of SWAPO into income generating projects; where I was assigned to turn residential houses and busses into viable business there, was no single source of income in SWAPO Party! Therefore, something had to be done to generate funds in
order to sustain the Movement. This task was left solely on my shoulders as Deputy Chief Coordinator and, eventually, as Secretary for Economic Affairs of the SWAPO Party. Lucas Pohamba and his mentor, Sam Nujoma, know fully well that, after the 1989 independence elections, SWAPO was left penniless.

When Pohamba and Nujoma left for the comfort of paid jobs in the government in 1990, I and many other comrades remained at the Party level eking out a meagre living.


I then started conceptualizing and eventually realizing the establishment of business enterprises, such as: Kalahari Holdings (Pty) Ltd; Zebra Holdings (Pty) Ltd; Guinas Investments (Pty) Ltd; the Grand Chinese Restaurant and CERET (an NGO). These were the main SWAPO Party business ventures, at that time, with diversified business interests. These holding companies had their own subsidiaries with separate managements and Boards of Directors. Kalahari Holdings, for example, embraced the following companies: Namib Contract Haulage (Pty) Ltd; Namib Graphics or Namprint (Pty) Ltd; Namibia Protection Services (Pty)Ltd; Omafo Business Centre; Multichoice Namibia and its subsidiary M-WEB; New Dawn Video(Pty)Ltd; Radio Energy(Pty)Ltd; Namangol (Pty)Ltd; the property portfolio; farms; and the list goes on.

Furthermore, Pohamba and Sam Nujoma, ought to fully understand that, for one to start a business, one must be credit worthy and have essential capital investment, especially finance and human ingenuity. Therefore, it was imperative for the Board of Directors and managements of the SWAPO Party enterprises to approach financial institutions to acquire loans in order to finance the operations of the enterprises and to grow the businesses. This was in line with the Companies Act 1973 (Act 61 of 1973). They did not require political interference, because it was their fiduciary responsibility.
Therefore, Lucas Pohamba and Sam Nujoma, were supposed to have realized that one cannot secure a bank loan unless there is commensurate security, also known as collateral. Banks only give loans or overdrafts to well administered and credit worthy businesses. It is generally expected of business started with sufficient capital inputs to have a break even at the end of the third financial year. For Nujoma and Pohamba the business should have just started, and after a few months a company was expected to fund SWAPO Party operations.

It is thanks to our efforts that the SWAPO Party is today swimming in huge ocean of money from dividends, being paid by these companies, such as Multichoice Namibia (over N$20 million per annum), interest in a Financial Institution, Fishing Industries and Mining interests, etc. The SWAPO Party did not invest a single cent in the above mentioned businesses, except the intellectual property of Naholo and Kashume. Borrowings were made in my personal capacity in order to kick-start the businesses. I did it with sincere commitment and limitless love for my way of life and our common home, the SWAPO Party, by that time.

When Comrade Kashume and I left the SWAPO Party operations, those businesses were operating on generally accepted business principles and practices. Hence, all that glitters, and being vulgarly consumed in the SWAPO Party, came from the brains of comrade Kashume and myself.

ABOUT THE MOBILE RADIO EQUIPMENT


Sam Nujoma and Lucas Pohamba are alleging that we have sold mobile radio equipment to the DRC. I want to categorically state that the said equipment was never under my responsibility as the head of the Department of Economic Affairs of the SWAPO Party. Rather, it was part of the military hardware donated by SWAPO to the Government of the Republic of Namibia. However, it is ironic and surprising to observe that the radio equipment was siphoned off from the government for illicit purposes. An illegal deal was organised
through a Party company to lender credence to the whole spell. Hence, it was Kalahari Holdings, and not the Namibian Government, which was compensated for N$1million, from the transaction of the radio equipment, valued £1.5million. How can the radio equipment worth 1.5 million British pounds be sold for only N$1 million. What had happened to the rest of the money? Is this not yet another inspiration of TEKO senario?

It is an open secret that the said radio equipment was sent to the DRC on the instruction of Sam Nujoma. Pohamba knows this very well, but he would not dare take his master to task. It is important to note that already in 2002, then, President Nujoma had, out of the blue, to tell the Central Committee and the Congress of the SWAPO Party that I, Festus Naholo, sold to the DRC the mobile radio equipment, which was worth 1.5 millions British pounds. This was, of course, a crafted strategy, as well as, a diversionary tactic aimed at avoiding the revelation, contained in the Report of the Department of Economic Affairs to the SWAPO Party Central Committee, that an income of N$1million had been received from the sale of the very same radio equipment. This income was recorded in Kalahari Holdings account books!

It is therefore a ferocious lie, that I “sold SWAPO mobile broadcast equipment to people in Democratic Republic of Congo at the height of the war in the Great Lakes region,” while Namibian soldiers were engaging enemy troops. Moreover, implicitly and hypothetically, this means I committed high treason. However, it is incomprehensible that the two men, in the top leadership of the SWAPO Party and the Government of the Republic of Namibia, who are supposedly averse to crime, failed both the Namibian nation and SWAPO Party members for not having ensured that the law took its cause. This state of affairs constitutes a felony and grotesque negligence, akin to complicity in the alleged crime, on the side of Nujoma and Pohamba.

I then demanded that an investigation (by an impartial, competent and independent judicial body) be instituted, but Nujoma and Pohamba would have nothing of it. Moreover, I expected
Sam Nujoma to be investigated also by the same Committee for having mismanaged the South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO), during the struggle for liberation, and if both of us are found guilty, they should face the consequences of our respective criminality. Because Pohamba has now jumped in the fray, he, too, should be investigated and face the same. And this should include the highly questionable missions that he undertook to South West Africa from Dar-es-Salaam and Lusaka, one via Pretoria, in the early 1960s!

In a gleeful mood and with utter disregard for the truth and the dignity of Reverend Naholo, Pohamba misplacedly heaped praises onto people who did not contribute a thing to the establishment and the growth of Kalahari Holdings Group of companies. Those that Pohamba had praised were collected to reap the fruit of Naholo’s and Kashume’s labour, while they did not plant a single fruit-tree. It is well known that this group is embedded in SWAPO Party business to wrestle, to propel to beef-up and advance the political, social and economical domination of the nepotistic and now hegemonistic Omusati Clique.

The fact is, that Sam Nujoma, in collusion with his friend, the late Laurent Desire Kabila, organized the sale of such radio equipment to the DRC. Hence, the equipment was taken from Namibia on the instruction of Sam Nujoma and was eventually sold to the DRC. Please take, note once again, that radio equipment, which was worth 1.5 million British pounds, was allegedly sold for only N$1million! As I have said, the amount of N$1 million was registered as income in the account books of the Kalahari Holdings (PTY) LTD, and this was eventually reported to the Politburo and Central Committee of the SWAPO Party in 2002.

Comrade Kashume and I did not benefit in any way directly or indirectly from this transaction.
In order for him to tarnish the character of real or perceived political opponents, it has been the habit of the so-called Leader of the Namibian Revolution to accuse innocent persons in order to hide his sinister and diabolic activities, which are conceived in evil and born in sin. Hence, it surprises no-one why Nujoma had elected to make me a scapegoat for his own double dealings.

Let me also seize this opportunity to assure everybody that I did not know Kabila. Nor did I ever set a foot on the soil of the Congo, Zaire or the DRC. Nor have I ever collaborated with the sadistic killers of Patrice Lumumba. I did not collaborate with puppet Moise Tshombe and or the kleptocratic Joseph Mobutu Sese Seko and their international finance accomplices. Nor did I participate in the imperialist plots through “dialogue” schemes against the people of Southern Africa, and the Angolan and Congolese peoples in particular. I did not declare or decry a slogan “SWAPO and UNITA are One”. I also was not part of the conspiracy involving the illegal sending of Namibian soldiers to the DRC in order to defend uncontrolled international finance’s plunder of the natural resources and wealth of the people of the DRC. Nor was Naholo given mining interest for free in the DRC, where some of our soldiers were reduced to garimpeiros, as diamond diggers are also known. I have never sent un-refunded Namibian loans to the DRC!

Sam Nujoma, in particular, must learn to tell the Namibian people the truth, as he can only fool some of the people some of the time and not all the people all of the time! Hence, Pohamba’s horrendous and invidious allegation as well as his sneering at the Reverend Festus Naholo is akin to a syndicalist betrayal by revisionists, turncoats and white-collar opportunists.
As one of the most trusted cadres in SWAPO by then, I risked my life by undertaking missions carrying vital items, including huge amounts of cash. The daring missions took place between Africa and Europe and from one capital city to the other in Southern Africa. All missions were successfully accomplished. When did Pohamba and his master Nujoma realise that I’ am a thief?

I am not a thief, nor am I corrupt. I could not have stolen radio equipment, let alone having sold it to the DRC where I did not even have access. This is a pure figment of their imagination, constructed to protect the real thief of the radio equipment as well as the greedy, corrupt, visionless and obedient agents of capitalist business monopolies.

I maintained my class position, right from the beginning. This patriotic stand on my part is proved also at the SWAPO Congress of 1976, held at Walvis Bay, when I was Acting SWAPO National Chairman. This Congress saved the mismanaged SWAPO-led struggle of the Namibian people from total destruction by imperialist forces.

ON SWAPO HOUSES ‘ALIENATED BY NAHOLO AND KASHUME’


Furthermore, President Pohamba talked about the houses alienated or made to disappear by Kashume and myself. I advise him to consult the Deeds Office. At the Deeds Office he will, not only acquaint himself with property registration records, but he will be educated that our country for decades had properly preserved record systems on the ownership of properties at all municipalities. From the Deeds Office he will learn to avoid indulging in leathery loose- tongue. Like the sun rising from the east and setting in the west, so is the truth, which they will never be able to destroy.

Lucas Pohamba should also be reminded that, during the liberation struggle and when I was acting as a Deputy Head of the Treasury at the Swapo HQs, in Luanda, Angola, I established
a corruption-proof and integrated financial accounting system for SWAPO of Namibia, then as a liberation movement.

Similarly, when I was heading the Department of Logistics, we built a formidable logistical system, which was admired by our allies. There were no material properties of SWAPO, which had entered or left Angola or Zambia without my approval or, in my absence, my Deputy. Nor was there any consignment, which had disappeared or lost. The Department of Logistics, which I headed, kept all the records of SWAPO Party material goods, including weapons and ammunition, even SWAPO Party documentary records. I ensured that the records and material goods were collected from all over the world; from former SWAPO representation offices and that they were kept safe until I left office. For your information, I even initiated an Archive system and a Documentary Centre Project, which was in progress when I left.

There are people in this country who have been labouring to band and falsify history, and steal and own the glorious struggle of the Namibian people. These people are hypocrites. They are primitive and belong to the old past. They are not only trying to own our glorious struggle, they are monopolizing and controlling terms and words, our treasure and heritage. This means that we are being robbed of our rights by a gang of minority, who think they are the untouchable “super naturals”.

Despite their insidious attempts to disgrace Reverend Naholo, I’ll never betray my belief and my political outlook. I’ll steadfastly remain on the side of the dwelling class and the dehumanised poor, who are facing ruthless exploitation, despicable and untold suffering in an independent Namibia. By the way, how could a country so rich in mineral resources have with a population of 2 million, have a 50 percent unemployment rate? But one wonders why Pohamba should jump on the bandwagon. By the way, why is Pohamba minding himself with the crooked incrimination of Reverend Naholo, when everybody knows, that Pohamba
himself has been running a corrupt government, which he inherited from his master Nujoma and whose some officials are involved in endless embezzlement and mismanagement of public resources. These and other facts overwhelmingly brought me to the conclusion that
‘birds of feather flock together’, indeed.


While 400 000 Namibians are eating only one meal per day, Pohamba spends over N$10 million in taxpayers’ money on luxury cars for his office. He is abusing taxpayers’ money to build a new office worth more than N$40 million for his master, who is an old and retired president.


As the Head of Government, Pohamba should explain why the Municipality of Windhoek has donated 3.6 hectares of land to the Sam Nujoma Foundation in 2005. Why did the Sam Nujoma Foundation request the Windhoek City Council permission to sell two-thirds of the donated land for N$23 million? This is one and the same Sam Nujoma Institution, which is reaping huge benefits from the State coffers. As the Father of the Namibian Nation through an Act of Parliament, Sam Nujoma is also reaping huge benefits from State coffers. Millions were also pledged to the Sam Nujoma Foundation, while a tract of land was also given to Sam Nujoma by the Town Council of Walvis Bay. What had happened to all these, Mr. Pohamba?

Why is there a need of a new “stand-alone office” for the Foundation, separate from the office of the former President? This is abominable. It is insensitive spending of public funds and the mismanagement of resources. These questions also beg for appropriate answers:

• Who does not know that an individual charged with embezzlement of the state funds is on Party list to go to Parliament?

• Pohamba should tell the nation how the N$120 million was stolen from the treasury to the Chinese company. If he wants to involve Naholo in affairs of company managements, same should apply to him. What correctional measures did he take to recover those funds? Can Pohamba inform the Nation who else benefited from the N$120 million?
• Pohamba must explain why senior government officials, including himself, got their children on Chinese Government scholarships. Were such scholarships not designed for the disadvantaged children, because Namibia’s top brass can afford to pay for the education of their children? By the way, how could his daughter be on the list if he himself or his wife did not sign the scholarship documents?
• Awarding business opportunities, tenders and concessions to those well connected, draught relief for only SWAPO Party card carrying members, the creation of divisive designs undermining national unity as well as creating and promoting pockets of tribal authorities, headed by opportunistic SWAPO Party members are a recipe for disaster.

President Pohamba’s malicious attack on my character on December 3 2009 was apparently motivated by my Walvis Bay speech. According to confidential information at my disposal, my Walvis Bay speech of October last year was received with apprehension by SWAPO Party leaders. But my Walvis Bay speech only exposed the other falsehoods, which are inherent in the accusations so often levelled against Comrade Hidipo Hamutenya. Hence, I merely had to put facts in their true perspective and set the record straight once and for all.

MONIES OBTAINED FROM BANKS IN SWAPO PARTY?


Lucas Pohamba also alleged at the 20th anniversary of Kalahari Holdings that Kashume and Naholo took money from banks in the name of the SWAPO Party and its business entities for self-enrichment.
“They were drawing money from the banks using Party fixed property as collateral. They were almost bonded by the executor. I confronted Reverend Naholo and he was trying to deny. And I said, I have proof that some houses had already gone and been sold”, Pohamba said. Such crude and myopic presentation of issues is brutal and dangerous. Obviously this is another mound of lies! He should be factual and should provide the names of those banks, the account numbers, signatories on the accounts and the names of the bank officials who have administered at the banks such horrendous fraud.

Can Pohamba also provide proof of any property of the SWAPO Party, which I have collateralized? Does he have factual written proof that I, Festus Naholo, was to be bonded by the executor? Can Pohamba provide resolutions signed by the owner of the properties I have sold authorising such purchase? As far as I know, banks and conveyers cannot deal with issues of transactions without proper resolutions signed by the seller and the buyer! When loans are involved, properties are insured. Can he provide which organization has insured the transacted properties? I hope Mr. Pohamba is able to provide the Deeds of transfers of the thirty houses and eleven flats he claims were sold by Kashume and Naholo.

Has the SWAPO Party under Pohamba’s leadership not failed its members by not holding Naholo and Kashume accountable or at least trying to trace their money through the bank records, as well as to let the law take its cause? Pohamba has been the overall in charge of the SWAPO Party administration. How then could he allow the theft of Party funds and assets without him taking legal action? Or does Pohamba want to be seen as an accomplice? Or is Pohamba paying the dues for having been made a candidate for the Presidency by his master?
HOW SWAPO PARTY PROPERTY WAS ALIENATED


I wish to remind President Pohamba and also to inform the general public that the following properties were either sold or donated by the SWAPO Party leadership to several SWAPO Party leaders:

(a)Properties disposed by the Central Committee of SWAPO Party as free donations:


1. The house of Mzee Simon Kaukungwa at Wanaheda;


2. The house of Andimba Toivo ya Toivo at Klein Windhoek;


3. The House of Chairman David Hosea Meroro at Pioneers Park;


4. The house of Uncle Helao la Ndadi at Tsumeb;


5. Former President Sam Nujoma’s farmland adjacent to the black-top road on way to the Kutako International Airport, which was valued at N$1.3 million;


(b)Houses sold by consent of the SWAPO leadership for various reasons.


1. The house of Maxton Josef Mutongolume at Khomasdal;


2. The house of Gertrud Kandanga-Hilukilwa at Katutura;


3. The Mossad Street House sold to S.Wohler;


4. The house of Hidipo Hamutenya at Olympia;


5. The house in Windhoek West, where Namibia Today initially used to operate from. This house was disposed off by the Party shortly after the 1989 election in order to foot some of the outstanding election bills incurred by SWAPO and to meet the demobilization challenges;

6. The SWAPO Party’s Swakopmund house sold in order to purchase a plot and to build a SWAPO Party’s current Regional Office.
7. The former SWAPO Party Head-quarters, which was valued at N$8.5 million and was sold by a committee of the Politburo to Nujoma’s brother-in-law, Aron Mushimba’s business interest. As part of this transaction, a plot was bought where the current SWAPO Party HQ in Windhoek has been built. Resulting from the same transaction was that Zebra Holdings (PTY) Ltd became a 10% shareholder in the Stocks & Stocks development company. At the time, Stocks & Stocks was also the owner of the Windhoek Country Club Hotel and Casino as well as the Swakopmund Entertainment Centre and Station Hotel and Casino; and

8. The status of the house where Pohamba has been living before he became President was never made clear to me. This must be made clear now because the people have the right to know!

PROBLEMATIC HOCHLAND PARK FLATS


Kalahari Holdings had problems, because nobody was ready to rent accommodation in the dilapidated Hochland Park flats. Besides, the flats were having dysfunctional structural problems. To make the flats habitable and rentable, the leadership of Kalahari Holdings took a N$2.2 million bank loan from SWABOU to renovate the whole infrastructure. Flats were never sold, nor were they made to disappear, as Pohamba has alleged.

Pelican Square Property was developed into a shopping centre complex and a service station, with a GIPF loan of N$3.3 million and accompanying security as well as own funds. As far as I know, it remained a property of SWAPO Party/ Kalahari Holdings.

The above are the facts as I know them. So, what is the fuss all about? Allegations and accusations made against me by Pohamba are void of any truth. Or can Lucas Pohamba produce his list of properties which had disappeared and or had been sold for the self- enrichment of Naholo and Kashume, please?
PERSECUTION OF OVAKWANYAMA & ‘HIBERNATORS’


It pains me when I look at all the abuses and when I think about the future of our beloved Motherland. Believe you me or not, the purges, pogroms and persecutions of Ovakwanyama and the so-called hibernators both from the public service, is a prelude to tribal and ethnic cleansing and other social ills, which, if not stopped soon will have in future dire consequences, not only for targeted victims, but mainly for the architects of these crimes against humanity and the greedy hot-headed canon-fodders as well. There is no dispute about the fact that the overwhelming majority of those who are being victimised in the SWAPO Party and in the public service, including in the state-owned enterprises, are mainly ethnic Kwanyamas. What have Ovakwanyama done to Nujoma and his cohorts of the Omusati Clique? Is that because they have paid the brunt of Namibia’s war of liberation?

It is unfortunate that children are growing up with the knowledge that their parents have been victims of purges and persecutions during the regime of Nujoma and Pohamba. The people involved in this barbarism are inflaming a dangerous volcano, which, once it erupts, they will never be able to stop it.

THE MORBID PEUDO-REVOLUTIONARIES


Incitement by pseudo-revolutionaries--claiming that they were brought up in the thick of the revolution and are veritable harbingers of the revolutionary traditions--are also false and of serious concern. We have recently also witnessed certain other petty-revolutionaries being invited to Namibia from South Africa, proclaiming at Katutura that members of Opposition Parties in Namibia are “cockroaches” in the SWAPO Party’s kitchen!

This is reminiscent of a latent and preludes to the Rwandan genocide, where adversaries were first branded cockroaches, before they were consigned to brutal violence in the thousands! In South Africa, these disorderly and chauvinistic reactionary circles are fighting the Left in the
ANC, accusing them of wanting to take over the ANC. These morbid pseudo-revolutionaries are noisy both in South Africa and Namibia advocating the accumulation of financial and other resources through ill-defined and corrupt programs, such as the so-called BEE enterprises, while tested liberation struggle stalwarts are being hounded from public service to go and eat from refuse drums. In the name of the workers, they are even proposing taking over of Pupkewitz family business, which is the artery of the Namibian economy, in order to satisfy their selfish and greedy egoism. Who ever is behind this conspiracy is doing a disservice to the people of Southern Africa. President Pohamba, if he is his own man, he should wake-up and protect the moral-fibre of our people from those destructive forces.

But is Pohamba serving a nihilistic ideology propagating discrimination, division and exclusion? Pohamba should learn that exclusion, discrimination and lust for power, wealth, fame and prestige are recipes for extremism, anachronism, prejudice and bigotry.

The hilarious demagoguery and propaganda have been used during fascism, the highest stage of imperialism, in Apartheid South Africa and in Nazi-Germany in order to instill fear in the hearts and minds of the masses. The ultimate aim was to demean and dehumanize opponents. The architects of these systems indulged in self-glorification and by showing that they were omnipotent. Moreover, ordinary human beings can be persuaded to commit heinous crimes through the destructive incitement and vitriolic outbursts. In the end such ingenious lies cause despicable human suffering and destruction, such as the following:

- The recent ethnic-based and political implosions in Kenya and Zimbabwe which left thousands dead and or maimed as well as the destruction of property

- The brutal massacre of over 150 protesters in Guinea-Conackry by Captain Dadis Kamara’s forces

- The kleptocratic rule by Joseph Mobutu Sese Seko, which had exploded into a murderous brutal war characterized by war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Great Lakes Region
- The barbaric slaughter of innocent civilians in Sierra Leone, which was sponsored by Charles Taylor of Liberia

- The killings, torture and disappearances of opponents in Chile under the fascist Pinochet regime
- Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust in Nazi Europe

- Poll Pot and his Cambodian “killing fields”

- Slobodan Milosevic and his campaign of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo

- The criminal killings, torture and enforced disappearance of thousands of Namibians on both sides of the war of contestation.

Having carefully analysed the accusations by Nujoma and Pohamba, I once more wish to ask whether or not Pohamba is his own man.

A democratic leader should persuade and convince compatriots with lofty ideals of integrity, peace, equality, justice and progress.

MY ADVICE FOR FORMER PRESIDENT NUJOMA


It is high time that his Excellency former President Sam Nujoma--who is abusing the title “Father of the Namibian Nation”, awarded to him through an Act of Parliament of the Republic of Namibia--hears the truth. He should stop advancing partisan and reactionary politics of divide-and-rule, tribalism and regionalism, as well as intolerance and inter- personal hatred in this country. It is also high time that Nujoma and Pohamba start respecting other fellow Namibians, who sacrificed their entire youth lives, making selfless contribution
and even supreme-sacrifices, by participating unreservedly and actively in a prolonged armed liberation struggle, without wavering.

Before I left Namibia to continue the struggle from outside the country, I, like many other fellow Namibians, was a victim of detention and imprisonment at various places in the country. I was humiliated in the same fashion as Presidents Pohamba and Nujoma, are also doing to me today. I was beaten, physically and mentally tortured and electrically shocked. However, inspired by David Abraham, Herman Toivo ya Toivo, Nelson Mandela, Immanuel Gotlieb Nathnael Maxwilili, John ya Otto, Eliaser “Kaxumba ka Ndola” Tuhadeleni, Simon Kaukungwa, Bram Louis Fischer, the Ndadi Brothers, Walter Sisulu, Axel Jackson Johannes, David Hosea Meroro and Govan Mbeki, as well as many other genuine fighters for liberation and social justice, I persevered until victory is achieved.

Pohamba and Nujoma, should understand that if Namibian patriots who bore the brunt of the struggle are pushed to the limit, the day will come when they will spill all the beans. What they miss to understand is that the brutalities perpetrated and perpetuated against innocents are never kept secret for perpetuity, without being revealed, and “what goes around comes around”.

MY ADVICE FOR LUCAS HIKIKEPUNYE POHAMBA


President Pohamba should understand that accession to political power should not be abused to spread rumours, lies and venom as well as the hate speeches of deranged psychopaths. But use your opportunity as President to unite citizens of all persuasions in order to learn from each other, to foster unity as well as common loyalty among our people to one single State. This can only happen in a country where everyone is respected and where there is equal treatment.
Pohamba ought to know that the dispersion and the diffusion of knowledge is the key reason for peace, political stability and wealth creation. As President of all Namibians, Pohamba is duty-bound to halt the barbarism of the arrogance of power, before resulting in anarchy and fratricide, and conflagration of communities. On March 21 2005, when you took over as Namibian President you promised: “I will be the President of all Namibians.”

President Pohamba, for your own sake, stop the rampant mismanagement and the looting of national assets in the State-owned enterprises and some government departments, before the devastating accusations you had just hurled at Comrade Kashume and myself are levelled against you.

Let me assure you, your Excellency President Pohamba, that as long as I am alive, no-one and no worldly force can silence me or stop me from addressing issues of lies, theft, corruption, injustices, dictatorship, human rights violations and treachery both in Namibia and globally. Those who tell lies about me must know that I have the capacity to tell truth about them! President Pohamba should show the Namibian public that he is his own man and he should prove that he is not a puppet on the strings dancing to the tune and whims of somebody else (who is perpetuating falsehood in order to protect his skin)!

You should halt the destructive practices by especially Nujoma’s die-hard followers who are increasingly displaying reactionary tendencies of exclusivism, regionalism, tribalism, favouritism and entitlement as well as other anti-social and unpatriotic vices, such as jobs for comrades, clique-ism and no-go areas, subversion and or boycotting of businesses of members of the opposition and other SWAPO Party critics. This grouplet and its cohorts are undermining investments by opposition members here at home, while they travel the world over inviting foreign investment even from “imperialists” and former Apartheid masters.
As Head of State, you are supposed not to indulge in slander and accusations as you are doing now. Spreading lies, which have been phantomed and cooked in the dark chimneys of hooligans must come to an end.

As Head of State, you are supposed to concentrate on the challenges facing our nation and the world at large, and busy yourself with the design of a credible and transparent welfare plan (establishing a sovereign fund from our abundant mineral resources), address poverty in our country and thus laying the ground of the edifice of a just society in this country.

Like other world leaders, you must pay attention to serious global challenges, such as the economic crises, climate change, international conflicts and natural calamities.

Finally, Mr. President, you must please remember that “those living in glass houses must not throw stones”. Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press, Compatriots, Friends and Comrades, I thank you all for coming and listening.

[Mie1]

I would have loved to have analised the voice stress of the speakers at certain junctures. A fully functional (wireless!) infallible, fool-proof, unimpeachable and incontrovertible, portable polygraph would have been handy, too!