Nujoma hate speech complaint withdrawn

A COMPLAINT of racial discrimination against founding President Sam Nujoma was withdrawn even before investigators could open a file.
Ombudsman John Walters yesterday confirmed that a complaint had been laid against Nujoma, but said the complainant had given instructions that the case be closed.

Walters said he could not comment further because the case no longer existed.The case is believed to have been based on Nujoma’s remarks while addressing a Swapo rally at Ongwediva two weeks ago.The Namibian reported that he said British people want to be beaten up. He said: ‘Let us beat them, not with knopkieries, but with hammers in their heads, if they touch one of our SADC countries.’ ‘They must take their hands away from Zimbabwe,’ Nujoma told a Swapo crowd.He accused ‘imperialists’ of wanting to exploit Namibia’s natural resources, such as copper, because Namibians are not skilled enough to do anything with these resources themselves.’They talk about human rights and democracy. Where do they know human rights and democracy if they kill Asians, Iraqis and Afghanis daily?’ Nujoma charged.A local Afrikaans daily reported that the complaint against Nujoma was for racial discrimination and possibly hate speech. It reported that Ombudsman Walters would personally investigate the case. Walters said the complaint was launched this week and withdrawn shortly afterwards. He added that his office could carry out an independent investigation into the matter but it was not clear what Nujoma had really said that specific day, as there were conflicting versions in three local daily newspapers.He said it could help if any of the newspapers could testify in court that their version of what was said was the correct one. Walters said he had not yet obtained film footage from the national broadcaster to study what was said at the rally. Once he received this material, his office would be able to ascertain whether the remarks constituted racial discrimination or hate speech. tileni@namibian.com.na