Let's get the tape of CC meeting – Diescho
Professor Joseph Diescho has challenged the Swapo Party to release a recording of the Central Committee meeting that took place in Rundu on the eve of Heroes' Day, where he was allegedly ridiculed by party president Hage Geingob.
Swapo yesterday called a media briefing where it categorically denied that Diescho had been discussed at the meeting.
Yesterday, for the first since her appointment as party information and mobilisation secretary in March, Hilma Nikanor briefed the media and challenged the allegations by Diescho, saying Geingob was not a tribalist. “We cannot have our leaders ridiculed, insulted for no good reason. It should be categorically clear that our leaders should be respected, they were put there by people,” she said.
“We challenge Diescho, if he believes in facts, to reveal his so-called informants. We further advise Mr Diescho to engage himself with productive matters instead of wasting his valuable time, self-claimed and proclaimed by some as an intellect (sic).”
Diescho, however, said he was reliably informed of what the president had said by CC members, some whom are his relatives. According to him, they told him that Geingob started his attack by citing a recent speech that Diescho had made in a local church.
“I didn't hear it but I was told that the president said I had failed and disappointed him at Nipam [the Namibia Institute of Public Administration and Management] and that is why he removed me.
“But I am grateful for one thing, and that is that if he said so, then he finally admits that it was on his order that I was removed. If I was a fool then he as the president should have shown leadership and corrected me,” he said.
Diescho was dismissed by Nipam in December 2015 for alleged insubordination, breach of his employment contract, competition with the employer and non-compliance with resolutions of the Nipam Governance Council.
According to Diescho it is not the first time the president has taken issue with him, and Geingob reportedly spoke ill about him when he address the armed forces at Grootfontein in 2016.
This was confirmed to Namibian Sun yesterday by former defence minister Nahas Angula, who said he was very worried that the president had used an inappropriate platform.
“Yes, I know that the president spoke to the soldiers about Diescho at Grootfontein. I was worried because when the president, who is their commander in chief, speaks to the armed forces, they will take whatever he says as a command,” Angula said.
In 2008, while Geingob was still the Swapo vice-president, he attacked Diescho at a rally at Outapi and branded him an “intellectual prostitute”. That came after Diescho had questioned Geingob's and the late Theo-Ben Gurirab's standing in Swapo.
JEMIMA BEUKES
Swapo yesterday called a media briefing where it categorically denied that Diescho had been discussed at the meeting.
Yesterday, for the first since her appointment as party information and mobilisation secretary in March, Hilma Nikanor briefed the media and challenged the allegations by Diescho, saying Geingob was not a tribalist. “We cannot have our leaders ridiculed, insulted for no good reason. It should be categorically clear that our leaders should be respected, they were put there by people,” she said.
“We challenge Diescho, if he believes in facts, to reveal his so-called informants. We further advise Mr Diescho to engage himself with productive matters instead of wasting his valuable time, self-claimed and proclaimed by some as an intellect (sic).”
Diescho, however, said he was reliably informed of what the president had said by CC members, some whom are his relatives. According to him, they told him that Geingob started his attack by citing a recent speech that Diescho had made in a local church.
“I didn't hear it but I was told that the president said I had failed and disappointed him at Nipam [the Namibia Institute of Public Administration and Management] and that is why he removed me.
“But I am grateful for one thing, and that is that if he said so, then he finally admits that it was on his order that I was removed. If I was a fool then he as the president should have shown leadership and corrected me,” he said.
Diescho was dismissed by Nipam in December 2015 for alleged insubordination, breach of his employment contract, competition with the employer and non-compliance with resolutions of the Nipam Governance Council.
According to Diescho it is not the first time the president has taken issue with him, and Geingob reportedly spoke ill about him when he address the armed forces at Grootfontein in 2016.
This was confirmed to Namibian Sun yesterday by former defence minister Nahas Angula, who said he was very worried that the president had used an inappropriate platform.
“Yes, I know that the president spoke to the soldiers about Diescho at Grootfontein. I was worried because when the president, who is their commander in chief, speaks to the armed forces, they will take whatever he says as a command,” Angula said.
In 2008, while Geingob was still the Swapo vice-president, he attacked Diescho at a rally at Outapi and branded him an “intellectual prostitute”. That came after Diescho had questioned Geingob's and the late Theo-Ben Gurirab's standing in Swapo.
JEMIMA BEUKES
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