'Arrogant' Utoni under fire

Land reform minister Utoni Nujoma has been described as crude, dismissive and arrogant when it comes to dealing with the media.

These were the sentiments of journalists and commentators yesterday about their interactions with the minister, who steadfastly refuses to entertain media enquiries about his critical ministry.

Nujoma has been even more crude, inaccessible and irritable since his interview with a South African broadcaster in June.

During the interview, broadcast as part of eNCA's series 'The Land Question', Nujoma asked how a poor person would run an expensive farm if granted one, and said the government ideally wanted to resettle people who could contribute to the economy.

He also made some startling remarks, including that compromises had to be made with the West and the South African apartheid regime to negotiate Namibia's independence, as Swapo guerrilla fighters were tired of staying in the bush.

Nujoma has since insisted eNCA deliberately quoted him out of context in order to tarnish his image.

Editors' Forum of Namibia (EFN) acting secretary-general Ronelle Rademeyer said yesterday that Nujoma demonstrated a wall of inaccessibility, which journalists very often faced when asking government officials for comment.

She said the media were always intent on giving the government right of reply.

“We want to adhere to the code of ethics and conduct for journalists and give our government the right to reply in matters of grave concern for the nation.

“We are, however, very often rudely brushed off when we call officials or our written enquiries simply remain unanswered,” she said.

Information minister Stanley Simaata exclaimed, “Yoh, yoh, yoh, why are you soliciting a comment from me?” when asked about the lands minister's attitude towards the media.

He said he was not privy to Nujoma's alleged rudeness and unwillingness to engage the media.

Simaata also wanted to know if an assessment had been done or whether it was “deception that is being advanced”.

“But from our perspective as government, we stand by what has been articulated from the head of state to ourselves, as the people responsible for advancing government information, to say all public officials including ourselves as ministers should and must avail themselves to engage with the media or members of the public.

“We have an obligation to provide whatever information is requested or required,” he said.

'Unmannered'

One local journalist said Nujoma had blocked his cellphone number, while another said she tried her best to avoid him.

“He is off-putting, unmannered, abrupt and unwilling to engage. I get the impression that he does not believe he is accountable to the Namibian public, but only to himself and his father, Sam Nujoma,” the reporter said.

On World Press Freedom Day last year President Hage Geingob said as long as he was given the mandate to lead this country, freedom of the press was guaranteed.

However, Nujoma's attitude tells a different story.

Retired Namibian Sun reporter Fred Goeieman labelled Nujoma as rude. “Whenever I tried to talk to him he would simply say, 'I am not going to talk to you' and that was that,” said Goeieman.

A female journalist who worked for The Namibian also remembers Nujoma as rude and unwilling to engage with the media.

She said when she reached out to him during breaks at parliament, he would tell the orderlies to tell her that he was busy or had a headache.

“There was a time when he called me from his car when he was driving to Omaruru and he told me 'do not masturbate on my name'. Imagine that is what the Son of the Nation is saying,” she said.

Nujoma was, however, quite a gentleman and forthcoming to veteran Republikein journalist Estelle du Bruyn.

“He actually liked me and spoke Afrikaans when we talked. I had an interview with his grandmother once. So we had a very good relationship,” she said.

Nujoma's phone went unanswered once again yesterday.

Namibia Non-Governmental Organisation Forum (Nangof) Trust chairperson Sandie Tjaronda said political leaders must understand they are accountable to the people and not to themselves, adding that the powers granted to ministers must be curtailed.

“We have not had much contact, I must say, and that is because there is no platform that has been created from his side to actually interact with us.

“He (Nujoma), I think, is one of the very secretive ministers that we have; I do not know what is happening in his ministry.

“The law sometimes gives so much power to a minister and they think they are the last people who will make decision that could cost people their livelihoods.

“So the minister can actually do whatever he wants and abuse that power,” Tjaronda said.

JEMIMA BEUKES