Ua-Ndjarakana slams genocide deal
INFORMATION executive director Mbeuta Ua-Ndjarakana has become the first senior government official from the affected communities to publicly oppose the N$18 billion genocide settlement between Germany and Namibia.
The arrangement is to be rolled out over 30 years, averaging around N$600 million annually.
Ua-Ndjarakana, in his personal capacity on Tuesday, told Nampa that the genocide pact is voidable and not worthy to append any signature to.
“Before there was a government, genocide was perpetrated against our forebears on the basis that they fought [and] resisted the colonisation of this country,” Ua-Ndjarakana said.
As such, Namibia must never bend over for other countries.
“We cannot turn to become the land of the cowards and accept peanuts and insults from the Germans when we have been blessed by our forebears to survive and carry on the torch, to continue tilling the land, to continue being who we are, preserving our dignity and identity,” he said.
Ua-Ndjarakana stated that it will be an insult on the souls of their forebears and a dehumanising step on the descendants of the victim communities for a democratic government to accede to the deal.
“I am expressing my views with the confidence that our government is not going to move against the people and sign this deal. It is not a deal worth a pen and paper to be signed by the Namibian government,” said Ua-Ndjarakana, who noted that the massacred communities and other Namibians who followed paid the ultimate price with their lives. Ua-Ndjarakana warned the government against using the unclosed genocide chapter for political expedience, stressing Namibians must refuse a “half-baked deal”.
The technocrat and historian also said people’s lives, livelihoods and cultural foundations “and everything” was destroyed and ‘can’t be repaired over 30 years as it will be a mockery of justice’.
Ua-Ndjarakana’s interview with Nampa comes amidst his discussion alongside National Planning Commission director general Obeth Kandjoze on NBC’s Omurari
FM flagship show, Keetute on Tuesday.
Kandjoze is a proponent of the agreement.
According to him, the government has “never wavered on the genocide issue since the motion was passed in the National Assembly and has brought it this far.”
“It is the same government that has been insulted and called names since time immemorial before independence. We were called terrorists.”
For Kandjoze, genocide is a national issue, hence the government’s central role. “We [Swapo] are here and our government is ruling and we are unashamedly spearheading this exercise. We have nothing to hide,” Kandjoze told the radio show.
He called on Namibians to support government’s efforts to close one of the darkest chapters in the country’s history.
“Let’s close this chapter and open a new one which will see us on the same table as those who massacred us. We cannot be enemies forever.”
Kandjoze noted: “I am a Herero and proud of my position in government where I have been given an opportunity to serve my people as appointed by His Excellency President Hage Geingob.
So let us criticise and correct each other but the ultimate goal is to chart a way that will unite all of us.”