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Attempt to make Nandi-Ndaitwah testify in redline case falls flat

AGAINST THE FENCE … Job Amupanda (centre) speaks to his lawyers, Kadhila Amoomo (left) and Mbushandje Ntinda, in the High Court yesterday.

An attempt by Affirmative Repositioning leader Job Amupanda to compel vice president Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah to testify in his High Court case about Namibia’s veterinary cordon fence (redline) has fallen flat.

A subpoena compelling Nandi-Ndaitwah to appear in the High Court as a witness in Amupanda’s case is irregular and void, judge Shafimana Ueitele stated in an order issued in the Windhoek High Court yesterday.

A similar fate befell subpoenas in which Amupanda had former Cabinet member Sacky Shanghala, lawyer Dirk Conradie, executive director of agriculture, water and land reform Ndiyakupi Nghituwamata and retired agriculture permanent secretary Joseph Iita summoned to court as witnesses in his case.

The subpoenas were issued last Thursday.

Nandi-Ndaitwah and Shanghala both reacted to Amupanda’s attempt to use them as witnesses by filing urgent applications in which they asked the High Court to set aside the subpoenas.

In the order Ueitele issued yesterday, he recorded that he ordered in November last year that all procedural issues in the case about the redline, including the issuing of subpoenas for witnesses, had to be completed by 13 December last year.

The subpoenas summoning Nandi-Ndaitwah, Shanghala, Conradie, Nghituwamata and Iita to appear in court as witnesses in the matter did not comply with the order he made in November, and no explanation was given for that non-compliance, Ueitele said.

Nandi-Ndaitwah and Shanghala both described the subpoenas as an abuse of court process in sworn statements filed at the court.

In her affidavit, Nandi-Ndaitwah alleged that Amupanda “intends to embarrass me by the impugned subpoena and the ensuing media spectacle at court”.

She said during her tenure as minister of international relations and cooperation, she had no dealings with the redline and she also has no personal knowledge about the negotiating and signing of international agreements on animal health.

Any trade agreements relevant to Amupanda’s case about the redline fall under the responsibility of the minister of agriculture, water and land reform, Nandi-Ndaitwah also said.

In his affidavit, Shanghala said he “considered the subpoena not genuine, but some political craft, some grand staging of sorts”.

Shanghala added that “the subpoena amounts to nothing more than harassment”.

Amupanda wants the court to declare the redline unlawful and unconstitutional, and to order the government to remove the fence.

The redline was erected to control the spread of livestock diseases between communal farming areas in northern Namibia and the rest of the country.

Amupanda is claiming that the fence is “a colonial structure” erected “to achieve colonial aims and objectives”.

He says it was not sanctioned by any law in Namibia and is also alleging that the fence is discriminatory, violates the dignity of people and “continues to be used for purposes of controlling the movement of animals and black people from the north to the south of Namibia”.

Agriculture minister Calle Schlettwein says in a witness statement filed at the court that the redline serves as an effective barrier to prevent the outbreak and spreading of infectious animal diseases in Namibia.

This secures Namibia’s status as a country with a zone free of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) without vaccination, which in turn gives the country access to the best-paying markets for its meat products globally, but comes at the cost of limited market access for meat products from the northern communal areas, Schlettwein says.

Shifting the redline or removing it “is not a simple action which can take place overnight”, but requires a gradual approach that would not erase progress made against the spread of livestock diseases like (FMD), he says in his witness statement as well.

The hearing of Amupanda’s claim is scheduled to start before Ueitele today.

The government, agriculture minister, 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.

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