Mutorwa’s Conspiracy Theory:
I read with dismay and shock an article written by one John Mutorwa as published by New Era of Friday, 5 October 2007, under the headline: “Truth About His Death Must Be Told”.
The said author was reacting to an article that appeared in The Namibian newspaper of October 2, 2007, Page 5, National News, under the title: “Standoff at Shamvura Camp in Kavango”.
After reading the said article, I could find out that the writer is none other than Minister of Youth, National Services, Sport and Culture, Member of Parliament (MP) and Cabinet member in the SWAPO-led government who hails from Kavango Region.
Mr Mutorwa will remain to be known as such despite his argument that his decision to make the comments and to ask some few questions was made “in my personal capacity”.
He knows very well that he is a public figure, an elected national leader and a lawmaker irrespective of wherever he is, whatever he is doing and saying either in private or public capacity.
For a leader to make a comment in one’s personal capacity does not take away the leadership responsibility. It does not mean one has to blunder or make unlawful utterances but only that one is not making a collective or institutional statement.
The “comments and some few questions” Minister Mutorwa posed in his article are either motivated by tribalism, ethnicity, regionalism or racism.
They are tantamount to public instigation to commit violence, finding a targeted person guilty before justice has taken its course – by seriously and publicly accusing Mark Paxton, owner of Shamvura Camp, as a suspect in the killing of Christof Weka, a Kavango resident, being disrespectful of the traditional authority as well as owning the piece of land illegally or in breach of the contract – and declaring him as unfit to live in that community.
What is most disturbing is that his voice, as a minister, adds value to the public’s malicious accusations, conspiracy theories, blatant hatred and or jealousy.
The MP from Kavango Region claimed to be “a person who is quite acquainted with so many people in the Shamvura area and its immediate environs” but he has completely failed to reveal how he is acquainted with Paxton and the late Weka.
His subjective, prejudicial judgment and unwarranted accusations on the matter have made the ongoing police investigation to be perceived as corrupt if not chaotic, untrustworthy if not unprocedural and easily manipulated, more especially by the affected residents.
Mr Mutorwa claimed to have facts but he has failed to provide them to the police who are formally investigating the death, instead coming to the print media and making dishonourable propaganda.
Who told him that “late Weka went to Kavango River on that fateful day”?
When he was alerted or realized that the late Weka never came back home, did he report the matter to the police?
Mr Mutorwa is discriminately questioning Paxton, as a witness, for having discovered the late Weka’s “abandoned clothing and shotgun on a nearby sand bank and contacted the police” but he is silent on the person(s) who discovered his lifeless body at Korokoko. What selective morality, Mr MP?
Apart from suspicion of Mr Paxton which is of course complicated work for Mutorwa, the local businessman should have been commended for his brave actions to immediately and confidently contact the police.
This action made the lawmaker to ask, “And why did Paxton take such belongings of an unidentified person straight to the police?”
Was he supposed to leave even an abandoned gun or take it to his house? Are these the honest arguments from Minister Mutorwa? OK. By implication, the SWAPO Parliamentarian is implying that all those good citizens who have discovered and reported to the police the body parts of the dismembered women around Windhoek and Grootfontein should equally have been charged as “B1 Butcher” suspects.
So he does not support the police’s effort of offering N$110 000 to the whistleblower?
Has the Minister of Youth got something to hide on Weka’s death? If there are any interrogations to be made of some residents, then Mr Mutorwa must also be considered for a thorough probing, questioning and investigation on Weka’s death. Where was he on that fateful day in the Kavango River?
It is also interesting to find out how the two theories can be reconciled when the cause of Weka’s death was first said to have been “shot several times” and later that “Weka had been beaten with a pole”.
When did Mutorwa become a forensic expert to dwell on some of these professions? It is very notorious for a supposedly senior politician to write that, “The tragic death of Weka left many unanswered questions. Those questions must be answered sooner than later. The truth must be told. The truth must come out and such truth must be known by the grieved family of Weka, the people of Shamvura, Ndiyona Constituency, the Kavango River and the Namibian nation at large…”
At this stage, it is highly insensitive and arrogantly provocative for anybody (in the Paxton family) to dare to talk about: “Shamvura Camp has a legal and binding permission to occupy.”
Mr Mutorwa is echoing the SWAPO Party Youth League’s (SPYL) Elijah Ngurare, when he ignorantly and provocatively threatened after the reports on the ICC submission that “… if the NSHR and its sponsors dare touch Cde Nujoma, the time bomb will explode and when it does, the consequences will predictably be disastrous not only to the NSHR and its sponsors, but also to those who economically control the means of production, we know those who own and control our national resources including land, we know those who own the multinational companies and those who own the mines…”
Minister Mutorwa seems to want to make some political point-scoring out of this issue in order to gain his regional support for the SWAPO November congress.
It is very dangerous to demand that “questions (to) be answered sooner than later” and the “truth (to) be told” before the police have even completed their investigation and the court has pronounced itself.
It is very idiotic to think that mob justice can bring about the “truth and justice” if carried out by everyone. Mr Mutorwa as a political leader has at this point used the print media to misinform, mislead and propagate his anti-Paxton campaign through questioning that “… Did he, Paxton, know already that Weka was dead and shall never return alive?”
The VaGciriku Traditional Authority and the people of and from Shamvura and environment are having a guide (from Mutorwa) of questions which they will use to confront Paxton in order to declare him a killer. There is no doubt that Mutorwa’s kangaroo court will succeed in putting Paxton’s life in danger “sooner than later”. His business reputation could have long been damaged.
There is likely to be an interest in the land which is occupied by Paxton from some quarters. The evidence can be obtained from one of his paragraphs that says: “No agreement is cast in stone! If and when the relationship between the parties to any agreement sours or breaks or cause to exist!”
Paxton is currently accused of having “refused locals access to the river and removing people’s fishing nets and boats from the river”.
But Mr Mutorwa and company should have known better that any harvesting must be done procedurally. It happens in the whole country, including the payable harvesting of the natural mopani worms in Omusati Region. The pressure is seemingly put on the VaGciriku Traditional Authority, the Land Farming Committee and Ministry of Lands and Resettlement to withdraw the agreement and someone will “grab” the land. Who is that one Mr Mutorwa?
It is very interesting to note that the MP concerned is just talking for the sake of it. He does not even possess the political will to assist the police’s investigation in one way or another to lead to the successful conclusion on Weka’s death. What the said politician could do is to only “pray that fairness, justice and the truth” do triumph. Is the accusation against Paxton part of the prayer?
I am becoming doubtful of the credibility of Mutorwa’s argument because it does not reflect to be genuine.
“I have been closely following reports and stories about and surrounding the inexplicable disappearance and mysterious tragic death of the late young man Christof Weka,” said Mutorwa. But I have hardly heard of his comment or question about the deaths of some commercial farmers, e.g. the Kareeboomvloer Farm Massacre where eight people were killed in cold blood between March 4 and 5, 2007.
One is also tempted to recall an outright rejection of a motion that was aimed at discussing the fate or whereabouts of the “missing persons” by SWAPO Members of Parliament, including Mr Mutorwa, on October 25, 2006.
Further, I have never heard of Mr Mutorwa, as a lawmaker, defending the rule of law on the National Society for Human Rights’ (NSHR) submission to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate Mr Sam Nujoma and three others for the missing Namibians before and after independence.
If the MP concerned is a person who does not believe in regionalism, can his personal interventions be heard on other issues affecting other regions in this country?
N. Nakandunga
Namibia