Homesick Diescho wants to return to Namibia

Self-exiled professor Joseph Diescho, who left the country four years ago to settle in Germany, says he is homesick. At the time, he blamed the move on a spectacular fallout with President Hage Geingob.

From being labelled as an intellectual prostitute back in 2008 to being called a man without a house and a failed administrator, Diescho is now prepared to make amends with his enemies and return to his motherland.

In February 2019, he left for Germany where he works as a visiting lecturer at the University of Bonn.

In an exclusive interview with Namibian Sun this week, the 68-year-old academic expressed his desire to return to his country of birth, adamant that he is willing to play his part in making peace with those he wronged, and those he might have offended unknowingly.

Diescho, however, said he will only return if Swapo apologises to him for the years of victimisation, vilifying and public insults he suffered at the hands of some party leaders.

He also needs assurance from the government ‘system’, which allegedly made him feel unsafe in Namibia, that his life will not be at risk.

According to Diescho, to date, he is still puzzled as to why the ‘system’ went after him and made his life difficult since he was unceremoniously dismissed as executive director of the Namibia Institute of Public Administration and Management (Nipam) in 2015.

Went too far

“What will make me come back is a statement from the ruling party that they made a mistake, that the vilification and humiliation they conducted in the media - calling me useless, using the municipal bill [to say] I cannot serve my people... They went too far,” Diescho said.

He was referring to 2015 revelations by Nipam chairperson George Simitaa that Diescho failed to make payments for water and electricity to the municipal account of the official residence availed to him as Nipam boss, racking up N$258 549 in debt.

Diescho said prior to his departure to Germany, he wrote a letter to a senior Swapo Party leader in which he expressed his intention to make amends with Geingob. Geingob has publicly acknowledged seeing the letter.

“I even went to the extent to say that I will apologise for things that I might have done wrong, even if I was not aware of doing anything wrong. I can swallow my pride to protect my leaders, but somebody has to tell me where I went wrong,” Diescho said.

Last year, an appeal was made for Geingob to reconcile with the Germany-based academic. This was made in a public statement issued by theologians Bishop Lukas Katenda and Pastor Laban Mwashekele, parliamentarian Paulus Mbangu, former Swapo Party Youth League secretary Elijah Ngurare and academics Marius Kudumo and Ndumba Kamwanyah. Other authors included Rinaani Musutua, Priscilla Matjila, Tjeripo Musutua and Severin Tame Haingura.

I want to help

Diescho further expressed a desire to serve the Namibian public, especially students who will be able to benefit from his wisdom.

“I believe I have a little contribution to make. I really want to help students,” he said.

Despite his fallout with Geingob, Diescho said there was a time when he was a staunch supporter of the head of state, adding that they met before he assumed the role as Nipam’s executive director in April 2013.

While at Nipam, Diescho was known for his critical column, 'Diescho's Dictum', which was published in the state-owned New Era newspaper at the time.

It is alleged that the column might have contributed to his fallout with Geingob.

In 2019 during a town hall meeting, Geingob was met with the Diescho question, to which he responded that the professor never wrote a dictum on how to effectively run Nipam.

My mistake

In 2017, ahead of the Swapo Party elective congress, Diescho chose not to support Geingob’s faction, which was known as ‘Team Harambee’, but instead supported ‘Team Swapo’ - a decision he said might have added fuel to the fire.

“Probably the mistake I made was to start taking part in Swapo meetings. I was on Team Swapo and I was writing pieces here and there, but I still don’t think it would be fair to be judged on that as I there are people who are still serving the Namibian people despite them having supported Team Swapo,” Diescho said.

He explained that his decision to go into self-imposed exile was to protect his family and friends.

Since his move to Germany, people he regarded as friends cut ties with him, fearing victimisation, he said.

“My friends have blocked my numbers because they are afraid that if they are seen to be in communication with me, they may suffer consequences. I had a lot of engagements lined up at a time that were cancelled at the last minute because the organisers were warned not to invite me,” he lamented.

[email protected]