Windhoek
A group calling itself the Bakgalagadi Concerned Group has requested a meeting with Bakgalagadi ba Namibia Chief Hubert Ditsabue.
In a short letter addressed to Ditsabue and copied to Omaheke Governor Festus Ueitele and Deputy Minister of Urban and Rural Development, Silvia Makgone, the group invites both Ditsabue and his daughter Josepha Ditsabue, the treasurer of the Swapo Party Women’s Council and all councillors of the traditional authority, to a meeting scheduled for Friday.
Recently Ueitele was heard telling Chief Ditsabue and his daughter that the Ovaherero community are backstabbers, practise double standards and do not seem to respect other tribes. This brought Ditsabue into the spotlight.
Group spokesperson Lucas Tshipo, who is also signatory to the letter of last week, confirmed the legitimacy of the letter, seen by New Era, saying that the group wants to know how widely the audio recording in which Ueitele was heard making tribal remarks ended up in the public sphere.
Ueitele recently apologised for his tribally inflammatory remarks after he was instructed to do so by President Hage Geingob to ensure there is peace and tribal harmony in Omaheke REgion.
The letter titled “Recent media reports on leaked recording” reads: “We hereby kindly request an appointment with you and your daughter with regard to the leaked recording which has caused so much confusion, to discuss certain utterances made.”
Contacted for comment last week, Ditsabue said he was not at liberty to be at the meeting of the so-called ‘concerned group’, since the group defected long time ago from the traditional authority.
“I don’t want to discuss this issue with them. President Hage Geingob has called an end to this issue when he asked Ueitele to apologise, so this is a closed chapter,” Ditsabue said.
“As you might know during the said recording I was just a participant. I didn’t say a single word, what do they want from me? People mentioned in that are not Motswana so what is there for me to talk about?” he said.
He said he was born in Omaheke Region, which he described as a “rainbow region” and he does not want to be dragged into tribal issues.
He said it was not the first time to receive such a letter from the ‘concerned group’ but there is no way he will allow himself to be dragged into other people’s issues.