2018-02-20Staff Report 2 Staff Reporter Windhoek-The Ovaherero Traditional Authority (OTA) has issued a rebuttal rejecting with contempt the SMS messages in the Namibian newspaper making unfounded allegations that the Ovaherero enslaved the San and Nama people in the past. In a statement yesterday, OTA spokesperson Uazuva Kaumbi said it is clear these despicable messages are being engineered by the enemies of the Nama and Ovaherero in a typical divide-and-rule fashion in order to drive a wedge between the two ethnic groups. “It is no coincidence that these messages are being publicised at a time when the Nama and Ovaherero are collectively scoring important legal victories in their class action lawsuit in the USA against Germany for the heinous crime of genocide that it perpetrated against the Nama and Ovaherero from 1904 to 1908,” he said. Kaumbi says that ordinarily, the traditional authority would not respond to such baseless statements as they are clearly intended to be a red herring – “there is a clear strategy by our enemies to distract our attention from the real fight for restorative justice, so that we shall be tempted to expend our energies on nonsensical sideshows”. However, he said, the OTA was issuing this statement to let it be known “that we are aware of these futile attempts to dilute and discredit our legitimate struggle to hold Germany accountable for its evil deeds”. “No amount of covert destabilisation strategies shall break the strong and unwavering bond of unity between the Nama and Ovaherero; we are united in our struggle to ensure that Germany will pay for its past sins against our people. We shall prosecute this struggle by any means necessary,” he said. 2018-02-20Staff Report 2
