Windhoek
President Hage Geingob yesterday described as ‘kindergarten politics’ the tribally-loaded utterances of Ovaherero chief Vekuii Rukoro, who recently referred to the democratically-elected national government as an ‘Owambo government’.
The president said he and his ruling Swapo Party have a full mandate from the overwhelming majority of Namibians who exercised their democratic right in the national elections held two years ago.
Geingob, answering questions from New Era before he departed for Swaziland where he is to attend a SADC summit, said Rukoro’s remarks showed the chief’s disregard for the right and choice of 80 percent of Namibians who voted for Swapo in the 2014 presidential and National Assembly elections.
Geingob, the Swapo presidential candidate in that election, garnered 87 percent of the total votes.
“Must I really comment on that? There are things at my age I react to. One day, when people were calling me a Kwangara, I said if Comrade Nujoma or Comrade Pohamba were to call me that, I will jump and be worried. If flies are flying around, I will just ignore,” the head of state, who is only in the second year of his constitutional mandate, said.
Rukoro drew nationwide condemnation after he referred to government as an ‘Owambo government’, which he accused of ‘putting their finger in the Ovahereros’ backside’.
Rukoro was furious at urban development minister Sophia Shaningwa for granting a rival Ovaherero faction permission to use a disputed piece of land at Okahandja for this year’s red flag day commemorations.
The red flag day commemorations at Okahandja are observed every year on August 26 as a way of paying homage to the fallen chiefs buried at the shrine there.
Rukoro’s Ovaherero Traditional Authority claims to have bought the plot from the Okahandja Town Council, but the Maharero royal house argues that the plot belongs to all Ovaherero people.
Shaningwa – out of fear that the warring factions would clash at the site – eventually withdrew her decision to grant permission to the other faction to use the site.
Government, through information and communication technology minister Tjekero Tweya, condemned in the strongest terms Rukoro’s tribal remarks, saying they had the potential to incite civil strife and tribal confrontations in the country.
Geingob yesterday reiterated government’s position on Rukoro’s tribal undertones, which he described as “serious”º.
“We will answer to it one day, because that is a serious statement. This is a national government elected by Namibian people. Swapo Party got 80 percent and yours truly got 87 percent,” he said yesterday at Eros Airport.
“Firstly I am not a Wambo, [so] what does he mean with that?”
“It reminds me of the old days when I was in Lusaka and Comrade Hidipo Hamutenya was talking to the British ambassador in Angola at the time. They were locked up in there and I asked what was going on.
“They said ‘well ambassador has a problem here, he is saying that the minority are worried about your oppression as a majority.’
“And then I asked him, ‘when did I ask you for protection?’. He didn’t get me and he repeated ‘but I said minority’. “Later on I said, ‘but I am minority, when did I ask you for protection?’ Then he said ‘I do not know Swapo’ and he packed up and left.
“So those who are talking like that, it is frustration. Literally, you can see it’s frustration. People are looking for platforms where they can talk. They are not getting them so they are doing everything that they can. So we cannot be diverted by that kind of thing. It is kindergarten politics,” the president said before jetting off to Mbabane, Swaziland.