Nudo’s Kandorozu under fire after telling deputy minister Ballotti to ‘go back to Italy’

Narional Unity Democratic Organisation parliamentarian Vetaruhe Kandorozu was forced to withdraw his comments after telling education deputy minister Dino Ballotti to go back to Italy in the National Assembly on Wednesday.

Deputy speaker Phillipus Katamelo had to adjourn the session prematurely as tensions rose following Kandorozu’s statement.

Kandorozu made the utterance when he called out Ballotti for allegedly interrupting Affirmative Repositioning leader Imms Nashinge’s contribution to the appropriation bill.

Ballotti then walked out of parliament as chaos erupted.

“Go back to Italy,” Kandorozu told him.

Kandorozu went on to say that Namibians do not look like Ballotti, even as Katamelo told him that his remarks were “unparliamentary”.

“The man is not Italian,” Katamelo said.

However, Kandorozu refused to back down.

“I’m not going to have respect for white people who have colonised us, took our land and destroyed our culture,” he said.

“A white man is a white man, they are not Namibians, whether we like it or not.”

Reacting to the matter, education, innovation, youth, sport, arts and culture minister Sanet Steenkamp on Wednesday demanded to know what Kandorozu meant by his statement.

“I have never been insulted the way you insulted me today. How dare you say Namibians do not look like this?” she asked.

“You take away my right as a full Namibian and make it look like I do not have a history, identity, and do not serve the country with integrity and with the dignity I feel I stand on. You have no right to make such a remark,” she said.

Kandorozu later withdrew his statement for “the sake of progress” after Katamelo asked him to do so, telling him his words were “not in the interest of building a nation.”

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