Political Perspective

AS The Namibian has reported on more than one occasion, former NBC Director General Gerry Munyama persists in asking the NBC to drop charges against him for stealing public funds.

This really makes me angry. Now, in a letter apparently sent to the NBC Board as well as the Minister of Broadcasting, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, Munyama has the temerity to state the following in motivating his plea for clemency: “I sincerely admit that to err is, regrettably, human, but it is more divinely and progressively a sign of maturity, Christianity and statemanship to caution, pardon and forgive”.IT gets worse, much worse.In appealing that the NBC drop the charges against him, and in return, take the amount he has stolen from the NBC from pension money owed to him, Munyama even has the gall to “remind” the NBC that he had “played an above-average role and contributed similarly in the liberation struggle in multi-dimensional missions and capacities”.”Whilst others were savouring the killings, sufferings and untold misery of Namibian patriots at the hands of the occupationist regime I was carrying out patriotic duties as an artillery instructor …and subsequently became the editor of The Combatant, the mouthpiece of the People’s Liberation Army of Namibia (Plan)”.Because he has (allegedly) “been unemployed for over a year now and have suffered a heavy loss of income threatening penury, attachment, auctioning and sale in execution of my property…”, had further suffered “serious family dislocation” as well as “unfavourable public invectives, incivility and maltreatment and indignity”, it was time for the NBC to forgive and forget, the former CEO said.I, like many other Namibians, am constantly angered by the fact that our jails are filled with petty thieves, while the big culprits, like the Munyamas of this world, go scot-free! And to add insult to injury, they still claim to be badly done by.He and others like him should realise that people from backgrounds such as his own, in which he has enjoyed a good education followed by extremely well-paid, senior positions of trust, and who have enjoyed all the fruits of their elitism, in addition to the ill-gotten gains they reaped as a result of their political connections, should be more and not less liable simply because of these facts.He, and others like him, should know better, and if they don’t, it is high time that we make examples of people such as these.In short, he got to the top of the heap, was CEO of an already seriously ailing and mismanaged parastatal, and instead of trying to put matters right there, and expending all his energies in this regard, he contributed to its further demise in acts of calculated fraud and theft! And now he argues he should be exonerated because he was in the struggle and his family are alienated and people hurl insults at him! I sincerely hope that his pleas fall on the deafest of ears because he has abused a public trust.Neither is it enough that he be allowed to pay the money back and the court case against him be withdrawn.He remains self-righteous and arrogant, and who’s to say he won’t do the same again given another senior post? It is not as though the fairly simple case of theft that he’s been charged with is all he’s liable for, in any case.Under his corrupt leadership, the NBC went from bad to worse.Many of the decisions taken during his time there have come back to haunt the Corporation, and they included a number of dealings not fully investigated or concluded as yet, including Rock Enterprises and the Penduka arrangement.The investigation into the situation he left in his wake at the NBC has cost the taxpayer a huge amount of money and the forensic audit that has been conducted is a case in point.I would be absolutely horrified if either Cabinet or the Minister of Information and Broadcasting or the incumbent Director General of the NBC, Vezera Kandetu, or wherever the decision lies, were to exonerate this man for his wrongdoings.People must be accountable for their actions, particularly when they are in positions of influence and authority.The case against him must continue, and he must not be permitted to opt out of the unpleasantness that is purely a consequence of his own actions, even if that means a criminal record.Perhaps fortunately for him I’m not the arbiter in his case.If I were, I would also sentence him to life community service and/or make him return to the NBC as a cleaner in the corridors of the very Corporation he defrauded!Now, in a letter apparently sent to the NBC Board as well as the Minister of Broadcasting, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, Munyama has the temerity to state the following in motivating his plea for clemency: “I sincerely admit that to err is, regrettably, human, but it is more divinely and progressively a sign of maturity, Christianity and statemanship to caution, pardon and forgive”.IT gets worse, much worse.In appealing that the NBC drop the charges against him, and in return, take the amount he has stolen from the NBC from pension money owed to him, Munyama even has the gall to “remind” the NBC that he had “played an above-average role and contributed similarly in the liberation struggle in multi-dimensional missions and capacities”.”Whilst others were savouring the killings, sufferings and untold misery of Namibian patriots at the hands of the occupationist regime I was carrying out patriotic duties as an artillery instructor …and subsequently became the editor of The Combatant, the mouthpiece of the People’s Liberation Army of Namibia (Plan)”.Because he has (allegedly) “been unemployed for over a year now and have suffered a heavy loss of income threatening penury, attachment, auctioning and sale in execution of my property…”, had further suffered “serious family dislocation” as well as “unfavourable public invectives, incivility and maltreatment and indignity”, it was time for the NBC to forgive and forget, the former CEO said.I, like many other Namibians, am constantly angered by the fact that our jails are filled with petty thieves, while the big culprits, like the Munyamas of this world, go scot-free! And to add insult to injury, they still claim to be badly done by.He and others like him should realise that people from backgrounds such as his own, in which he has enjoyed a good education followed by extremely well-paid, senior positions of trust, and who have enjoyed all the fruits of their elitism, in addition to the ill-gotten gains they reaped as a result of their political connections, should be more and not less liable simply because of these facts.He, and others like him, should know better, and if they don’t, it is high time that we make examples of people such as these.In short, he got to the top of the heap, was CEO of an already seriously ailing and mismanaged parastatal, and instead of trying to put matters right there, and expending all his energies in this regard, he contributed to its further demise in acts of calculated fraud and theft! And now he argues he should be exonerated because he was in the struggle and his family are alienated and people hurl insults at him! I sincerely hope that his pleas fall on the deafest of ears because he has abused a public trust.Neither is it enough that he be allowed to pay the money back and the court case against him be withdrawn.He remains self-righteous and arrogant, and who’s to say he won’t do the same again given another senior post? It is not as though the fairly simple case of theft that he’s been charged with is all he’s liable for, in any case.Under his corrupt leadership, the NBC went from bad to worse.Many of the decisions taken during his time there have come back to haunt the Corporation, and they included a number of dealings not fully investigated or concluded as yet, including Rock Enterprises and the Penduka arrangement.The investigation into the situation he left in his wake at the NBC has cost the taxpayer a huge amount of money and the forensic audit that has been conducted is a case in point.I would be absolutely horrified if either Cabinet or the Minister of Information and Broadcasting or the incum
bent Director General of the NBC, Vezera Kandetu, or wherever the decision lies, were to exonerate this man for his wrongdoings.People must be accountable for their actions, particularly when they are in positions of influence and authority.The case against him must continue, and he must not be permitted to opt out of the unpleasantness that is purely a consequence of his own actions, even if that means a criminal record.Perhaps fortunately for him I’m not the arbiter in his case.If I were, I would also sentence him to life community service and/or make him return to the NBC as a cleaner in the corridors of the very Corporation he defrauded!