Affirmative Repositioning leader Job Amupanda lied when he said he did not know he was not allowed to take raw meat through Namibia’s veterinary cordon fence (redline) from the north of the country, a lawyer charged in the Windhoek High Court yesterday.
Amupanda’s testimony that he did not know that raw meat in his possession would be confiscated if he tried to take it from the part of Namibia north of the redline to the part of the country south of the fence was also “an utter untruth”, senior counsel Raymond Heathcote told Amupanda while cross-examining him.
Heathcote, who is representing the Livestock and Livestock Products Board of Namibia (previously the Meat Board of Namibia), and Amupanda were involved in some tense exchanges during the hearing of the case in which Amupanda is trying to have the erection of the redline declared unconstitutional.
Amupanda also wants the court to order the government to remove the veterinary cordon fence immediately, or within a period of 90 days.
During his cross-examination of Amupanda, Heathcote told him that when he went to the Oshivelo redline checkpoint on 17 May 2021 with meat that he had bought at an open market at Omuthiya, he knew he was not allowed to take the meat south of the veterinary cordon fence.
Amupanda answered that he knew there is a fence in place and on follow-up questions said he did not know he was not allowed to take raw meat through the redline to the part of Namibia that is south of the fence.
That answer was an attempt to mislead the court, Heathcote charged.
He pointed out to Amupanda that in his claim filed at the court, it is stated that Amupanda has been travelling from his home village in northern Namibia to Windhoek frequently since 2005 and that he has continuously been required to declare animal products in his possession at the redline and has been subjected to compulsory and routine searches of his luggage and vehicle.
In his claim, Amupanda is alleging that the redline is being used to control not only the movement of animals from northern Namibia to the part of the country south of the fence, but also to control the movement of black people.
In his testimony before judge Shafimana Ueitele, Amupanda has called the redline a “colonial instrument” that is discriminatory and unconstitutional and is being kept in place by “the regime”, which is Namibia’s post-independence government.
Amupanda said the government and other respondents opposing his claim are defending the status quo, “settlers’ interests” and “capitalist interests”.
He also said his case against the redline is about the continuation of colonialism by “the regime and other stooges of the regime”.
“My case is about rights which cannot be postponed,” Amupanda said, after Heathcote told him the purpose of the current veterinary cordon fence is to control the spread of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and other livestock diseases from northern Namibia to the part of the country south of the fence.
That gives the southern part of the country the status of being free of FMD, which is a requirement for getting access to well-paying export markets for Namibian meat products in places like Europe, the United States and China.
Amupanda added that it is dangerous to impose the concept of “opportunity costs” – claims that the removal of the fence would end the Namibian meat industry’s access to export markets and cost thousands of jobs south of the redline – on the rights of people and to postpone the enjoyment of rights by keeping the fence in place.
Heathcote also told Amupanda that the government’s position on the redline is based on scientific facts about animal diseases and their spread, adding that Amupanda’s position about the fence is “stuff the facts” and “stuff the science”.
“I’m operating at the level of principle,” Amupanda responded.
When Heathcote told him that the evidence of the livestock products board and other defendants will show that the immediate removal of the fence will be counterproductive and “calamitous” for Namibia, Amupanda answered that the defendants’ fears should not trample the rights of people.
He also stated: “The rights cannot be postponed. The enjoyment of rights cannot be postponed.”
Amupanda is due to continue with his testimony today.
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