Unrepentant Schlettwein maintains Fishrot stance
• Says Swapo is not its president
The retired minister recalls how he and two others almost lost their Cabinet posts after speaking out against the fishing quota bribery scandal.
Nikanor NangoloWindhoek
Former agriculture minister Calle Schlettwein says he remains unapologetic about his 2019 stance on the Fishrot corruption scandal, which drew a stern rebuke from then-president Hage Geingob and nearly cost him his Cabinet seat.
Schlettwein, along with former mines and energy minister Tom Alweendo and ex-public enterprises minister Leon Jooste, publicly condemned the scandal shortly after it broke, and this week insisted that their position correct.
Schlettwein was the first to break ranks when he tweeted on 1 December 2019: “The Al Jazeera video shows a typical case of resource looting from a developing country (Namibia) by a multinational company with the involvement of a few highly placed and influential Namibians. It is criminal. All must be prosecuted. The process has started, must be completed.”
Days later, Alweendo tweeted that Fishrot was “reprehensible and needs to be condemned by all of us,” while Jooste said he was “personally devastated” by the revelations.
“Corruption is like stealing, and whether one steals N$1 or N$1 million, it’s all the same, and equally wrong,” Alweendo added at the time. “I’m proud of Namibians sharing their disgust and anger, and I believe that we have the corporate ability to turn a negative experience into a positive solution.” He further urged the public to submit recommendations on eradicating corruption in government.
Similarly, Jooste remarked: “Corruption starts with two parties, one paying and the other receiving, and both are equally guilty. I often hear people saying that certain officials dealing with the public are generally corrupt. If that’s true, it means that the same number of citizens are corrupt.”
Reports later suggested Geingob reprimanded the trio during the last Cabinet meeting of 2019, warning them to resign if they felt superior to their colleagues implicated in the scandal. Then-justice minister Sacky Shanghala and fisheries minister Bernhardt Esau were arrested in 2019 and remain behind bars awaiting trial.
Appearing on The Agenda talk show, airing soon on Network TV, Schlettwein said he had no regrets.
“Well, I stand absolutely by what I said. Fishrot is one of those examples where multilateral, multinational parties exploit a small economy with the help of well-connected politicians for their own gain. And that is corruption. That is bad. That damages the whole system. One cannot condone that. I believe that view is correct.”
Grandstanding allegations
The Al Jazeera documentary that year alleged up to N$2.5 billion had been looted from Namibia’s fisheries sector. Schlettwein, Alweendo, and Jooste’s outspoken criticism reportedly angered Geingob, who accused them of grandstanding.
“You are behaving like you are cleaner than others. You are criticising how the [Fishrot] case has been handled,” Geingob reportedly told the ministers. “If you are not happy with how the case is being handled, then why don’t you just resign?”
Despite the reprimand, Schlettwein says he refuses to back down.
“The fact that we got into trouble for holding that opinion can be interpreted in many ways,” he said. “Why is it that a correct stance is suddenly perceived as a threat, or as something that should not have been said? I was disappointed by that, honestly. I thought that if you, as a collective, take a stance against corruption, such an opinion, as Tom and I expressed, would have been welcomed, not used to land us in trouble.”
‘Swapo is not the president’
Schlettwein, who was appointed by Geingob to Swapo’s central committee, stressed that the ruling party should never be reduced to a personality cult.
“The party is bigger than the president. We sing ‘Swapo is the people, and the people are Swapo’. We never sing ‘Swapo is the president, and the president is Swapo’. No, we don’t sing that. So, it is important to voice your views and make them known, even if they are uncomfortable for some,” he said.
He added that Cabinet later barred ministers from expressing such views unless they were publicly sanctioned.
“Of course, in a collective system one has to respect that, and we tried to adhere to it. But the fact remains, we were right. I cannot retreat from that. I believe it was very correct. Sometimes it is necessary to say uncomfortable things, because it is not only our responsibility as leaders to follow what the top leadership wants.”
— [email protected]
Former agriculture minister Calle Schlettwein says he remains unapologetic about his 2019 stance on the Fishrot corruption scandal, which drew a stern rebuke from then-president Hage Geingob and nearly cost him his Cabinet seat.
Schlettwein, along with former mines and energy minister Tom Alweendo and ex-public enterprises minister Leon Jooste, publicly condemned the scandal shortly after it broke, and this week insisted that their position correct.
Schlettwein was the first to break ranks when he tweeted on 1 December 2019: “The Al Jazeera video shows a typical case of resource looting from a developing country (Namibia) by a multinational company with the involvement of a few highly placed and influential Namibians. It is criminal. All must be prosecuted. The process has started, must be completed.”
Days later, Alweendo tweeted that Fishrot was “reprehensible and needs to be condemned by all of us,” while Jooste said he was “personally devastated” by the revelations.
“Corruption is like stealing, and whether one steals N$1 or N$1 million, it’s all the same, and equally wrong,” Alweendo added at the time. “I’m proud of Namibians sharing their disgust and anger, and I believe that we have the corporate ability to turn a negative experience into a positive solution.” He further urged the public to submit recommendations on eradicating corruption in government.
Similarly, Jooste remarked: “Corruption starts with two parties, one paying and the other receiving, and both are equally guilty. I often hear people saying that certain officials dealing with the public are generally corrupt. If that’s true, it means that the same number of citizens are corrupt.”
Reports later suggested Geingob reprimanded the trio during the last Cabinet meeting of 2019, warning them to resign if they felt superior to their colleagues implicated in the scandal. Then-justice minister Sacky Shanghala and fisheries minister Bernhardt Esau were arrested in 2019 and remain behind bars awaiting trial.
Appearing on The Agenda talk show, airing soon on Network TV, Schlettwein said he had no regrets.
“Well, I stand absolutely by what I said. Fishrot is one of those examples where multilateral, multinational parties exploit a small economy with the help of well-connected politicians for their own gain. And that is corruption. That is bad. That damages the whole system. One cannot condone that. I believe that view is correct.”
Grandstanding allegations
The Al Jazeera documentary that year alleged up to N$2.5 billion had been looted from Namibia’s fisheries sector. Schlettwein, Alweendo, and Jooste’s outspoken criticism reportedly angered Geingob, who accused them of grandstanding.
“You are behaving like you are cleaner than others. You are criticising how the [Fishrot] case has been handled,” Geingob reportedly told the ministers. “If you are not happy with how the case is being handled, then why don’t you just resign?”
Despite the reprimand, Schlettwein says he refuses to back down.
“The fact that we got into trouble for holding that opinion can be interpreted in many ways,” he said. “Why is it that a correct stance is suddenly perceived as a threat, or as something that should not have been said? I was disappointed by that, honestly. I thought that if you, as a collective, take a stance against corruption, such an opinion, as Tom and I expressed, would have been welcomed, not used to land us in trouble.”
‘Swapo is not the president’
Schlettwein, who was appointed by Geingob to Swapo’s central committee, stressed that the ruling party should never be reduced to a personality cult.
“The party is bigger than the president. We sing ‘Swapo is the people, and the people are Swapo’. We never sing ‘Swapo is the president, and the president is Swapo’. No, we don’t sing that. So, it is important to voice your views and make them known, even if they are uncomfortable for some,” he said.
He added that Cabinet later barred ministers from expressing such views unless they were publicly sanctioned.
“Of course, in a collective system one has to respect that, and we tried to adhere to it. But the fact remains, we were right. I cannot retreat from that. I believe it was very correct. Sometimes it is necessary to say uncomfortable things, because it is not only our responsibility as leaders to follow what the top leadership wants.”
— [email protected]
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