Staff Reporter
A lawyer representing the publisher of a local newspaper, which is being sued for N$150 000 for defamation by labour minister Utoni Nujoma, has withdrawn from the matter.
Felicita Gaes from Uanivi Gaes Incorporated indicated to High Court Judge Shafimana Ueitele that she will step down as lawyer for Paragon Investment Holding, which is the mother company of the Windhoek Observer newspaper.
She, however, did not indicate why she was withdrawing from the case.
Gaes said her notice of withdrawal has not yet reached Paragon as the deputy sheriff is unable to serve her former client at their last known address. Ueitele postponed the matter to 22 March for Gaes to serve her notice of withdrawal and for the deputy sheriff to locate and serve Paragon Investment Holding.
In the suit, Nujoma claimed he was defamed by a Windhoek Observer article headlined ‘Farmer accuses Nujoma of extortion’.
According to Nujoma, insinuations made in the article that he had allegedly made two unsuccessful attempts to extort N$1.5 million on the first occasion and N$400 000 during the second attempt, was intended to be understood by the readers that he is “a corrupt person, a person of questionable morals, untrustworthy and disgraceful”.
He claims his reputation has suffered because of the said article, and now claims damages in the amount of N$150 000. According to the article, Nujoma, who at the time was the minister of land reform, allegedly attempted to extort N$1.5 million from farmer Gerson Ndjai Zaire in return for the granting of a certificate of waiver which Zaire had applied for.
Zaire allegedly needed the waiver to enable him to subdivide Farm Rustig 416 in the Khomas region and sell portions of it in order to settle his debts. Zaire allegedly spoke to the newspaper exclusively, and informed them that Nujoma’s business partner Sedekia Axab Gowaseb was an accessory to the attempted extortion.
He indicated that Gowaseb approached him in 2017, saying Nujoma is demanding N$1.5 million for the waiver. In 2018, Nujoma allegedly sent four unnamed men to demand N$400 000 from him.
The article stated that Nujoma was given right of reply, but refused to comment. Gowaseb, on the other hand, told the newspaper that Zaire’s claims were far from the truth.