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Swanu urges Ovaherero, Nama chiefs to unite

2021-06-17  Kuzeeko Tjitemisa

Swanu urges Ovaherero, Nama chiefs to unite

The country’s oldest political party has urged the Ovaherero and Nama chiefs to put aside their animosity and work together to reject in unison the N$18 billion genocide reparations agreement reached between the Namibian and German authorities.

“We call on the Ovaherero and Nama communities to unite for a common purpose and stop being divided by Swapo and its government for short term personal financial or political gain,” newly recruited acting Swanu secretary general Evilastus Kaaronda said in a statement this week.

The Ovaherero and Nama traditional leaders had separate press conferences all saying they reject the genocide agreement pact, but Kaaronda believes the time is now for the affected communities’ traditional leaders to unite and fight for reparation and justice as both the “Swapo-led government and the German government are your only enemy”!

The Namibian and German governments recently agreed on a genocide reparations pact, which included the European nation committing to fund projects in the country amounting to N$18 billion over 30 years.

The agreement is based on the mass killing of the Nama and Ovaherero people by colonial Germany between 1904-1908,

He said Swanu has rejected, in the strongest terms possible and with the contempt it deserves, the reconstruction and reconciliation agreement reached between the two governments.

“We also vehemently reject the notion that the general elections in Germany are of any material consequence to the quest of our people for justice and wishes to state that this is nothing more than a political ploy conjured up by both the Swapo-led government and the German government,” said the former firebrand unionist.

He said it was Swapo, which in 1982 accepted the constitutional principles, which in 1990 gave the country the “mickey mouse” flag independence. 

“Claiming that they were tired, homesick, ageing and faced with dwindling financial resources they had no choice but to take the Mickey Mouse offer by the western contact group,” Kaaronda said.

“Out of sheer cowardice, love of money and the luxuries it brings as well as being committed to no principles, the Swapo leadership sold our revolution to the highest bidder just like they intend to sell the Ovaherero and Nama communities out to the Germans,” he added.

 “It is the Western Contact Group constitution which we now call the Namibian constitution, which gives the Germans the audacity to do as they please and of course the knowledge that they are dealing with the same unprincipled money loving and self-serving politicians,” he said.

Kaaronda said the fight for freedom was, therefore, aimed at getting back the land of their ancestors and returning this stolen land to its rightful owners, the descendants of the massacred ancestors some of whose skulls were recently repatriated back to Namibia while others still remain in German custody. 

“The fight for freedom was about restoring our lost dignity, our destroyed humanity as well as to settle long standing scores of protracted years of colonial oppression, exploitation and deliberate impoverishment,” Kaaronda said, adding that their fight for freedom was never divided or compartmentalised into political, economic, social and cultural freedom.

“Our freedom was then and still remains indivisible! Our freedom is total and has no subtotals!” he said.

- ktjitemisa@nepc.com.na


2021-06-17  Kuzeeko Tjitemisa

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