EDITORIAL: Esau pigeonholing himself

By declaring himself poor, former fisheries minister Bernhardt Esau is insulting Namibians. There are alternative methods to gain compassion - or truly establish his innocence - but proclaiming oneself destitute, contrary to evidence of his net worth, just serves to aggravate his situation.The disgraced former minister has been a poor witness in his ongoing bail application. He has barely accepted any responsibility in the Fishrot debacle and has consistently accused his then permanent secretary – whom we assume was the late Ulitala Hiveluah – of being behind authorising several things that went wrong. Hiveluah died in 2016 and is not here to defend herself – something that Esau seemingly seeks to exploit.As if attempting to hoodwink people into thinking he is poor was not enough, Esau also turned on his co-accused, blaming them of using his supposed ‘clean’ name to commit Fishrot crimes.Perhaps the most chilling of this finger-pointing is when he named his son-in-law Tamson Hatuikulipi as one of the people who ‘used’ his name to commit the alleged crimes. For what it’s worth, it’s important to remember that the two men brought a joint bail application in 2020, which they lost in the end.Esau was privy to the allegations levelled against him and the dossier containing everything related to how this alleged theft was executed. Are we to believe, in this desperate time for the former minister, that he jointly applied for bail with the man who knowingly used his name and essentially landed him in hot water?

EDITORIAL: Esau pigeonholing himself

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Namibian Sun 2025-06-27

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EDITORIAL: Esau pigeonholing himself

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Namibian Sun 2025-06-27

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