Nujoma house cost N$43m – State House

THE presidency said the government spent around N$43 million on upgrading former president Sam Nujoma’s private residence.

State House spokesperson Alfredo Hengari said this in a statement issued to the media at 23h15 last night.

The presidency leaked this same statement to the daily state-owned New Era before it was sent out to the media.

“The cost of the upgrades and renovations amounts to around N$43 million,” Hengari said.

He was reacting to two stories published by The Namibian titled ‘Nujoma double-dips on housing benefit’ and ‘Nujoma’s house cost N$43 million’.

“Centrifugal forces, who prefer to operate behind the safety of anonymity in an attempt to use this matter to drive a wedge between the founding father and president Hage Geingob, have clandestinely started a campaign of causing disunity in the Namibian political landscape,” Hengari said.

The spokesperson said a provisional security clearance was provided to companies contract Nujoma’s house.

This was done before Geingob assumed office as head of state on 21 March 2015, he said.

The presidency also blamed officials around Nujoma and rejected claims that the former president and Geingob are not on good talking terms.

He said Geingob served Nujoma in several positions such as the director of United Nations Institute for Namibia (UNIN) and Namibia’s first prime minister.

“President Geingob served the founding president in all these designations well before the advent of the new so-called “loyalists”, and sycophants. President Geingob has always been with the Founding Father, in the first line of defence, as a “bodyguard,” he said.

He denied reports that the two are not on good talking terms.

“The issue of the “Nujoma-Geingob camps and supporters” is a figment of the imagination of those few remnants whose minds and emotions are still languishing in the aftermath of their defeat at the 2017 Swapo party extraordinary congress,” Hengari said.

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