Ithana wins street fight

AN ATTEMPT by veteran lawyer Andreas Vaatz to stop the renaming of a street in one of Windhoek’s wealthiest areas to the late former Chairperson of the Public Service Commission, Joseph Ithana, was dismissed in the High Court in Windhoek yesterday.

Vaatz’s effort to stop the renaming of Gloudina Street in the city’s upmarket Ludwigsdorf residential area to Joseph Mukwayu Ithana Street was not only dismissed in a judgement delivered by Judge Collins Parker, but Judge Parker also gave a heavier than usual costs order against Vaatz.Judge Parker slammed Vaatz as having ‘acted in a frivolous and vexatious manner’, and as having been motivated ‘by no other motive but malice – and malice writ large’.He now plans to appeal to the Supreme Court against Judge Parker’s decision, the never-say-die Vaatz said after the judgement had been handed down.The Windhoek City Council decided on August 31 last year to rename Gloudina Street after the former PSC Chairman, after receiving a request for such a renaming from Ithana’s widow, Justice Minister Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana. At the same time, the City Council decided to rename Uhland Street in Klein Windhoek as Dr Kenneth Kaunda Street, after receiving a request from the Zambian High Commission in Namibia to have a prominent street in the city named after the former Zambian president.Vaatz lives in Gloudina Street. But so does the Justice Minister, who is also the Secretary General of the Swapo Party.Iivula-Ithana sent a request to the City of Windhoek in June 2009 to ask that her late husband, who had died in May 2008, be honoured with a street name.The late Ithana had been a member of Swapo’s Central Committee, was the Registrar of the United Nations Institute for Namibia in Zambia before Namibia’s Independence, and was Namibia’s first PSC Chairperson until he retired from that post in 2005.In the case in which he sued the Windhoek Municipal Council over the street renaming, Vaatz claimed: ‘I personally have never heard in my life of this Joseph Mukwayu Ithana, I don’t know why at all a street must be named after him, he has never done anything for me nor for any of my family, my children or for my business.’Turning his attention to Ithana’s widow, Vaatz added: ‘I know that Mrs Ithana has been a Minister for the Swapo Government for a number of years and of late the Minister of Justice. As such, in my opinion, she has not done very much. The administration of our justice system is unsatisfactory by any standard and I am not aware that she has done anything to improve the system. (. . .) I would thus not even recommend a street to be named after her.’Vaatz argued that the Windhoek City Council should have first consulted with the residents of the two streets that were renamed, and should have taken their views into account, before the decision was made to change the street names.In an affidavit also filed with the court, the Chief Executive Officer of the City of Windhoek, Niilo Taapopi, denied that Vaatz or other residents of the two streets were entitled to be consulted by the City Council before the decision was taken.When it renames streets in the city from time to time, the City Council ‘aims to pay homage to national and international leaders that contributed to the struggle for a democratic and non-racial society that the majority of the city’s inhabitants are proud of’, Taapopi stated.'(The City Council) when renaming a street considers the contributions made by individuals in shaping and creating a society that enables all its citizens to live a better life. In the opinion of (the City Council) the late Joseph Ithana fits that category.’Vaatz asked the court to order the City Council not to rename Gloudina and Uhland streets. He also wanted the court to declare that no existing street name in any municipality in Namibia may be changed if the majority of the street’s residents had not first given their support and approval for such a name change.Since he does not live in Uhland Street, Vaatz has no legal standing to challenge the renaming of that street, Judge Parker ruled.Given the constitutional separation of powers between the judiciary and the executive branch of Government in Namibia, the court does not have the power to issue a blanket prescription against street name changes to all municipalities in Namibia, Judge Parker also ruled.With respect to the change of the name of Gloudina Street, the judge noted that Vaatz did not ask for a decision of the City Council to be reviewed, but instead wanted an order stopping the City Council from carrying out its decision.’With respect I fail to see in terms of what power can this court direct and order the (City Council), an administrative body, not to perform its duties and carry out its functions under a valid and applicable statute, that is (the Local Authorities Act),’ Judge Parker stated.Judge Parker labelled remarks which Vaatz made in his affidavit before the court as ‘vituperative and odious in the extreme’.’What is more, the insults – and insults they are – are uncalled for and unjustified, and they can never be countenanced in any judicial proceedings in any civilised legal system like Namibia’s,’ the judge said. Vaatz’s remarks served no purpose ‘except to insult, annoy and denigrate’, he charged.Vaatz was represented by Natasha Bassingthwaighte with the hearing of the case on May 23. Nixon Marcus represented the City Council.