Affirmative Repositioning leader Job Amupanda says an incident during which an official at a veterinary cordon fence (redline) checkpoint seized meat from him affected his dignity.
He was particularly affected when he witnessed the meat that was confiscated from him being burnt in his and onlookers’ presence, Amupanda told judge Shafimana Ueitele in the Windhoek High Court yesterday.
Amupanda said this in testimony in support of a legal claim through which he is trying to have Namibia’s veterinary cordon fence declared unconstitutional.
He is also asking the court to order the government to remove the redline immediately, or within a period of 90 days.
Amupanda recounted that he was travelling from his home village, Omaalala, situated north of the redline, to Windhoek on 17 May 2021 when meat that he had bought at Omuthiya was confiscated at a redline checkpoint at Oshivelo.
“As I set out to travel from my native village to Windhoek, I made it a point to stop at Omuthiya open market to purchase meat, traditional food and other items for my wife, children and other family members,” Amupanda said in his testimony.
“I felt it necessary to do so due to my upbringing and particularly the teachings of my grandmother that I as a man and provider for my family have the implicit obligation to always return home with goods for the family. Purchasing items at Omuthiya was moreover affordable in comparison to high capitalistic prices found in Windhoek.”
However, the meat he had bought was confiscated at the Oshivelo checkpoint, as meat products are not allowed to be transported from areas north of the redline to the rest of Namibia south of the redline.
Amupanda said when he asked the official who seized his meat if he could give the meat to people on the northern side of the redline, the official said he was not allowed to do so.
“This incident and cruelty disappointed and infuriated me both as a black person, knowing our history of brutality and discrimination, and as a father whose purpose of carrying the meat was to feed my family,” he testified.
Amupanda stated: “I was treated unfairly in comparison to persons who cross the redline from the southern parts of Namibia. They are particularly in no way subjected to the search and seizure I experienced. When they cross the redline with red meat it is automatically considered clean and free of diseases, whereas because I was travelling from the northern parts of Namibia, the red meat I possessed was regarded as dirty and disease-ridden.”
The redline is a symbol of colonial oppression and should not remain in force in an independent Namibia, Amupanda said.
The government, the minister of agriculture, water and land reform, the Livestock and Livestock Products Board of Namibia (previously the Meat Board of Namibia), the Namibia Agricultural Union and commercial cattle farmers Diethelm Metzger and Andre Compion are opposing Amupanda’s claim.
In a plea filed at the court, a lawyer representing the government and agriculture minister has defended the veterinary cordon fence as a reasonable, fair and proportionate measure to control and prevent the spread of animal diseases like foot-and-mouth disease from northern parts of Namibia to areas south of the redline.
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