PRESS RELEASE

Certain SWAPO Party leaders are allegedly deeply implicated in machinations to expel the Principal of the Etalaleko Secondary School at the town of Okahao in the Ongandjera tribal area in the Omusati Region, human rights monitors in the said region reported on Saturday. The expulsion of the said principal, a certain Lameck Shilongo, also referred to as “Kamunyengo”, was the subject of the rally, which was held at the headquarters of the Ongandjera Traditional Authority at the town, which human rights monitors also attended.

Originally, SWAPO Party Politburo member and Finance Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila was to address the rally. However, since she also had to attend the SWAPO Party star rally held at the coastal town of Walvis Bay on Saturday, Kuugongelwa-Amadhila was unable to address the Okahao rally. Instead, a local Regional Councilor chaired the meeting.

At the rally it was decided to instigate certain learners to stage a demonstration to press for Kamunyengo’s axing. “Kamunyengo is an RDP (i.e. Rally for Democracy and Progress) member, which is a tribal party of the Kwanyamas,” several SWAPO Party activists claimed during and after the rally. According to the plot, following the said demonstration, members of the school board were then to “submit to the popular demand” of the demonstrators and to formally recommend for Kamunyengo’s removal. NSHR efforts to trace Kamunyengo were futile.

Meanwhile, human rights monitors were also present during yet another SWAPO Party rally held yesterday at the Ekondo shebeens several hundred meters east of Oshigambo village in the Oshikoto Region. Here strong anti-Kwanyama epithets and hate expression were hurled at RDP leaders. The village, which hosts one of the most prestigious schools in the former Ovamboland, is situated about 20 kilometers north of the historical town of Ondangwa, also in the Oshikoto Region.

SWAPO Party Coordinator for the Oshana Region and Ongwediva Major Erastus Utoni chaired the rally. The meeting, which was preceded by provocative marching, dancing and chanting of epithets around Oshigambo native and RDP supporter Dave Ndungula’s shop, began at approximately 15h00 but was cut short by the rain downpours.

During the rally, Ongwediva Mayor Utoni, maverick Oshikoto Regional Governor Penda ya Ndakolo and SWAPO Party Regional Councilor for the Oniipa Constituency indulged in hate expression, and directed inflammatory harangues at RDP leaders. Claims were made to the effect that the Kwanyama-speaking people “are everywhere in this country” and that “RDP was a tribal party of the Kwanyamas some of who are even holding high posts in the SWAPO Party Government”.

In addition to Dave Ndungula, this hate speech was particularly directed at, among others, RDP Interim President Hidipo Hamutenya, Oshigambo native RDP Secretary General, Jesaja Nyamu, and RDP’s Coordinator for the Oshikoto Region, Ismael Shailemo. They were invariably described as “criminals”, “liars” and “botsotsos” and accused of being “a bunch of party of tribalists who are intent for bringing about an ethnic conflict like in Kenya”. The audience was urged to hold the Ndungulas, Nyamus, Hidipos and Shailemos by their tails and to cut those tails off

RDP Coordinator for Omuthiya Lieutenant (ret.) Moses Amkoto and NSHR executive director Phil ya Nangoloh also came under heavy fire especially from Governor Penda ya Ndakolo. Strangely, ya Nangoloh was accused of, inter alia, having embezzled thousands of Namibia dollars ear-marked for the construction of the Tsumeb-Ondangwa railroad.

“As a human rights monitoring and advocacy organization in this country, we are increasingly becoming gravely alarmed at the tribally motivated verbal attacks and at what appears to be a systematic demonization of members of one tribe, the Kwanyama people. SWAPO Party leaders, with specific reference to former SWAPO President Sam Nujoma and current SWAPO Party Secretary General Pendukeni Ithana, are viewed as harboring strong anti-Kwanyama sentiments. Since the launch of RDP on November 17 2007, certain (not all) of the SWAPO Party members have been deliberately and systematically labeling RDP as a Kwanyama-based party. This amounts to systematic persecution! Even normally inclusive and reconciliatory Namibian President Lucas Hifikepunye Pohamba, who is Kwanyama-speaking, has recently been reported to have made a public statement that RDP was a party of Kwanyamas (which he put it as ‘Kwamanyas’). Nonetheless, we commend President Pohamba for his wise speech yesterday at Walvis Bay where the President had urged Namibians to reject the scourges of, inter alia, tribalism and, like us, warning against a Kenya-style ethno-political conflict in the country. President Pohamba must act now before it is too late. We must stop forthwith referring negatively to people on the basis of their ethnic origin as this stirs ethnic hatred”, said NSHR executive director Phil ya Nangoloh.

In light of the above, NSHR is calling upon President Pohamba, both in his capacity as Namibian head of State and President of the SWAPO Party, as a matter of utmost urgency, to unequivocally pronounce himself on national television against the growing anti-Kwanyama and any other tribal or racially motivated sentiments in the country.

“We wish to warn the political leaders of our country that they will be held responsible for these extremely dangerous conducts, which unless discontinued now, could result in charges of crimes against humanity. It is interesting to note that those who have recently been accusing others of threatening peace and stability of this nation, for example, for petitioning the International Criminal Court, are now the ones who are spearheading this crusade of sowing of the seeds of ethnic strife in this country. It must be pointed out that the Namibian Constitution guarantees the right of all citizens to join any political parties of their choice without interference from any quarter”, ya Nangoloh warned.

Furthermore, NSHR is stunned at certain remarks attributed to former SWAPO Party President and Father of the Namibian Nation Sam Nujoma. According to some media reports this morning, Nujoma accused Opposition parties of downplaying and spreading lies about the SWAPO Party’s achievements and warned that such “negative vices” have the potential to disrupt peace in the country and can lead to confrontation and bloodshed.

“Moreover, the above remarks, from the Father of the Namibian Nation, are illustrative of the deep-rooted intolerance of criticism which underpins the very provocative and aggressive conduct of certain SWAPO Party leaders as described above”, ya Nangoloh concluded.