Windhoek
The former executive director of the Namibia Institute of Public Administration and Management (Nipam), Professor Joseph Diescho, has squarely blamed his recent misfortunes on the institute’s chairman George Simataa and other senior politicians opposed to his newspaper writings.
He revealed this in a 15-page letter to Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, dated January 25. He claimed in the letter that the beginning of his end started when he wrote the Diescho’s Dictum column titled ‘Kavango: A time bomb’ in New Era last year.
“The rest is conjecture as the distasteful and incredulous accusations made in the media were a public lynching of a person who was in disfavour with the political establishment,” he wrote in a letter that laid much of the blame at the feet of Simataa.
Diescho contends that his dismissal from Nipam was political because of the manner in which he “was defamed and character assassinated in public” and that speculation of his dismissal was “rife in the body politic of our nation even before anything happened that there was something afoot from high(er) offices because of my ‘lack of loyalty’ and my intellectual independence”.
In the letter, copies of which Diescho has shared with the media, he blames Simataa – who is also Secretary to Cabinet – for orchestrating his dismissal from Nipam, and of failing to act in good faith as per the agreement he and Simataa reached on December 8, in which each party promised not to speak ill of the other, and not speak to the media until a joint statement was issued on the outcome of the negotiations to mutually terminate Diescho’s employment contract.
Diescho also told the prime minister that he would be using the letter to brief the Kavango traditional leaders on his termination, “who in their anguish have asked for my brief in their council on the substance of my victimisation, intimidation and vilification by the Nipam council and whoever gave the instruction”.
The Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) declined to comment on Diescho’s letter with the public relations and communications person, Saima Shaanika, saying: “I am referring you to Professor Diescho to answer all your questions.” Diescho told New Era that he had only received a telephonic acknowledgement of receipt of his letter from the OPM. In the letter he has given the PM three days to respond, failure of which he would publicly release the letter.
Simataa, when contacted for comment, told New Era from India where he is currently on national duty that he has not seen the letter “although I have heard about it”.
Diescho does acknowledge to the PM that he did indeed “refuse to obey instructions of council members when instructed to stop writing my column in the newspaper. The instruction not to express my opinion in public or stop writing was not a legal instruction to carry out my obligations, but to silence me … the Namibian constitution gives all citizens the right to have and/or express their opinions.”
Diescho also reveals that the former chairperson of the Nipam council, Frans Kapofi, who is now the Minister of Presidential Affairs, “spoke to me on several occasions and asked me to stop”. The other council member who asked him to stop was Dr Salom Amadhila who “specifically advised me that there was a time for everything and that I have to stop writing my dictum”.
In the 15-page letter Diescho lists and dispels the accusations levelled against him. He disputes that he ever offered training services in his personal capacity, in competition with Nipam, and or that he failed to pay rent and pay for utilities at the house availed for his use by the OPM.
On training, he says he facilitated a leadership discussion for the SME bank on diversity management, which Nipam does not offer, and was given “a token of appreciation in the form of a honorarium”, even though he “offered to assist free of charge and as part of developing a module for Nipam”.