First Lady explains 'family trip'
Monica Geingos has rubbished allegations made on social media that the taxpayer funded her sisters' and children's visits to New York.
First Lady Monica Geingos has made it clear that her family is not in New York on the government's ticket.
Gossip-mongers have alleged that Geingos, who accompanied President Hage Geingob to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, took her parents, siblings and children along on the trip.
In a three-page statement yesterday, Geingos rejected claims that her parents accompanied her.
She admitted that a younger sister travelled to the US at the same time, but said she flew on a commercial flight and the ticket was paid for privately.
Geingos further explained that a second sibling was also in the US, but said she travelled with her employer on official assignment to the UN General Assembly, and not at the expense of the Namibian taxpayer.
Geingos said her son was in New York too, but his trip was privately funded. She had persuaded him to travel at the same time so that they could spend some time together as he was studying and frequently away from home.
The First Lady pleaded with the Namibian nation to “accept dependent children and parents as no-go areas for our scandalmongering, particularly where no public interest exists”.
“I find legal discomfort in being placed in a situation where people create false allegations against my family and I am then required to prove that such allegations are untrue,” she said.
Geingos, who had stated publicly on Twitter that she had receipts for her family's travel expenses, said she would only make them public if necessary.
“It is painful to see the inclusion of my parents in these types of spurious claims. Had my parents been funded by taxpayers' money to holiday in New York, it would be a dereliction of duty for any media house to pander to the sensitivity of an individual regarding their parents.
“My parents are not in New York and the journalists referenced by Natasha Tibinyane as having told her that they knew of the presence of my parents in New York were either lied to, or have lied,” she said.
The storm around the first family's travel itinerary broke loose after Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) director Natasha Tibinyane tweeted that she demanded “answers” from Geingos and the presidency.
That followed a picture posted on Twitter by Geingos's younger sister, Tashia Kalondo, indicating that she was enjoying the nightlife of New York City.
“If there was a time that we required professional and investigative journalism, it would be now as social media has become the crime scene for the production of 'weaponised' lies.
“I appreciate the fact that the journalists who reached out to me did so with the caution required when involving elderly parents and children but the reality is that the source of their media queries according to their own admission was based on social media postings,” Geingos hit back.
JEMIMA BEUKES
Gossip-mongers have alleged that Geingos, who accompanied President Hage Geingob to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, took her parents, siblings and children along on the trip.
In a three-page statement yesterday, Geingos rejected claims that her parents accompanied her.
She admitted that a younger sister travelled to the US at the same time, but said she flew on a commercial flight and the ticket was paid for privately.
Geingos further explained that a second sibling was also in the US, but said she travelled with her employer on official assignment to the UN General Assembly, and not at the expense of the Namibian taxpayer.
Geingos said her son was in New York too, but his trip was privately funded. She had persuaded him to travel at the same time so that they could spend some time together as he was studying and frequently away from home.
The First Lady pleaded with the Namibian nation to “accept dependent children and parents as no-go areas for our scandalmongering, particularly where no public interest exists”.
“I find legal discomfort in being placed in a situation where people create false allegations against my family and I am then required to prove that such allegations are untrue,” she said.
Geingos, who had stated publicly on Twitter that she had receipts for her family's travel expenses, said she would only make them public if necessary.
“It is painful to see the inclusion of my parents in these types of spurious claims. Had my parents been funded by taxpayers' money to holiday in New York, it would be a dereliction of duty for any media house to pander to the sensitivity of an individual regarding their parents.
“My parents are not in New York and the journalists referenced by Natasha Tibinyane as having told her that they knew of the presence of my parents in New York were either lied to, or have lied,” she said.
The storm around the first family's travel itinerary broke loose after Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) director Natasha Tibinyane tweeted that she demanded “answers” from Geingos and the presidency.
That followed a picture posted on Twitter by Geingos's younger sister, Tashia Kalondo, indicating that she was enjoying the nightlife of New York City.
“If there was a time that we required professional and investigative journalism, it would be now as social media has become the crime scene for the production of 'weaponised' lies.
“I appreciate the fact that the journalists who reached out to me did so with the caution required when involving elderly parents and children but the reality is that the source of their media queries according to their own admission was based on social media postings,” Geingos hit back.
JEMIMA BEUKES
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