EDITORIAL: Pohamba is embossing himself
01 December 2021 | Opinion
Former President Hifikepunye Pohamba has been in the news this week for unsavoury reasons.
In strict law terms, Pohamba has every right to kick pensioner Amanda Keirises (78) from his farm Guinaspoh, but for a former head of state, law cannot be the only consideration.
If government cannot buy a portion of his farm to accommodate Keirises, like it did when it paid in excess of N$5.3 million around 2009 to then secretary to cabinet Frans Kapofi and his associates to vacate what is today known as Mix settlement north of Windhoek, Pohamba must still find it in his cold heart to assist her.
For a millionaire former head of state who is still on a government salary and who received free communal land from the Ukwangali traditional authority, Pohamba’s eviction of a woman who is in the evening of her life is rather cold and unstatesmanlike.
The thought alone that he dragged this pensioner to court in order to obtain the eviction is rather shocking. As a former minister of lands and liberation struggle stalwart, Pohamba knows the history of land dispossession, something that his government dismally failed to address while he was in office.
His eviction of this woman and her family is an indictment on his government, and those who preceded it and served as ministers in various portfolios. Why is he acting as though he just landed from Jupiter and did not know what has been happening on earth, and this country in particular?
In strict law terms, Pohamba has every right to kick pensioner Amanda Keirises (78) from his farm Guinaspoh, but for a former head of state, law cannot be the only consideration.
If government cannot buy a portion of his farm to accommodate Keirises, like it did when it paid in excess of N$5.3 million around 2009 to then secretary to cabinet Frans Kapofi and his associates to vacate what is today known as Mix settlement north of Windhoek, Pohamba must still find it in his cold heart to assist her.
For a millionaire former head of state who is still on a government salary and who received free communal land from the Ukwangali traditional authority, Pohamba’s eviction of a woman who is in the evening of her life is rather cold and unstatesmanlike.
The thought alone that he dragged this pensioner to court in order to obtain the eviction is rather shocking. As a former minister of lands and liberation struggle stalwart, Pohamba knows the history of land dispossession, something that his government dismally failed to address while he was in office.
His eviction of this woman and her family is an indictment on his government, and those who preceded it and served as ministers in various portfolios. Why is he acting as though he just landed from Jupiter and did not know what has been happening on earth, and this country in particular?
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