Not About Swapo
WE ARE being praised for having one of the best Constitutions in Africa, if not in the world.
It is based on Universal Declaration for Human Rights and was established on the principles of democracy.
I am afraid, even the ministers who are both part of the Legislature and the Executive do not respect the rule of law. What happened to the Oath of Affirmation as enshrined in Article 55 of the Namibian Constitution?
The President as the appointing arm in terms of Article 32 should probably step in and call ministers to order.
There was an outcry recently that minister Kazenambo Kazenambo should be fired for making racial remarks.
Jerry Ekandjo could not have made those irresponsible, unscrupulous and vexatious remarks as the Minister of Local Government and Housing.
We are sitting with a standing landmark judgement in the Vaalgras court challenge case. In this case the community has set into motion the removal of Chief Joel Stephanus in terms of Section 8 of the Traditional Authorities Act No. 25 of 2000 for maladministration and bad governance.
I cannot remember one single day that Ekandjo was at Vaalgras after independence to evaluate what the Swapo government did for us. I dare him to go and see for himself what is on the ground in comparison to small native villages in the north.
In a democracy, people elect their own leaders and they decide on how they want to be governed, Vaalgras is no exception.
The same Ekandjo who said don’t take the Government to court on November 18 2009 and that the Government does not interfere in traditional matter in his office in Windhoek. These are bizarre statements and pure hypocrisy of somebody of his repute.
In this specific matter various people condemned him for not separating politics and tribal issues. Now, he wants to be both the referee and a player at the same time.
On the latter date, he advised us also to go and sort out our differences in accordance with the customary law and to come back to him with a concrete request, which we did to this stage.
If the community of Vaalgras in accordance with democracy has decided we don’t want leader A and we want leader B, then our democratic will must be respected.
He is not a member of our community and cannot decide or impose leaders upon us. He is placing our constitutional democratic order into jeopardy.
It was never a requirement to be affiliated to a certain political party to qualify to reside within a given traditional communal area.
We cannot expect any fairness from Ekandjo on the basis of that politically cantankerous statement and we subsequently vow to leave no stone unturned until justice is done.
The only fair thing for Ekandjo is to follow Section 6 of the Traditional Authorities Act No. 25 of 2000 in letter and spirit, which is the least that we expect from him as the Minister responsible to fulfil this role.
Vaalgras Resident
Address provided