Geingob’s silence aiding corruption – Amupanda

Geingob’s silence aiding corruption – Amupanda STAFF REPORTER



WINDHOEK

Windhoek mayor Job Amupanda says President Hage Geingob has not learnt that his silence on corruption involving his ministers has exacerbated the looting of national resources.

Amupanda claims to have substantive evidence of corruption involving defence minister Peter Vilho, but Geingob continues to look the other way, as he did when allegations of corruption against former justice minister Sacky Shanghala first surfaced.

Authorities only acted against Shanghala and his Cabinet counterpart Bernhardt Esau after international TV network Al Jazeera exposed their alleged dealings.

The ministers are implicated in a bribery scandal worth a reported N$150 million. The pair, alongside others implicated in the so-called Fishrot scandal, have been in jail since late 2019 and their trial is set to start in April.

‘Army is demoralised’

Speaking on Namibian Sun’s talk show The Evening Review yesterday, Amupanda was asked why he continues to claim that Vilho is corrupt.

The defence minister has consistently denied the allegations, and challenged the activist to report his claims to the Anti-Corruption Commission. Amupanda hinted that Vilho was scared to sue him, as Shanghala threatened to do when he was first accused of corruption by the Affirmative Repositioning leader, because he knows the truth will come out.

“People in the defence ministry are alarmed because [Vilho] is close to [the president] and thus no action is being taken. I speak to these people every day and the army is demoralised.

“I have a dossier of information about this guy’s corrupt activities and I’ll release [it] one by one,” the mayor claimed.

“I release these things in small portions because these are defence matters and I do this hoping action will be taken.

“Geingob must understand what his silence is doing to the army. The army is no longer operating cohesively because of [Vilho].”

‘Geingob failed’

“Geingob had an opportunity to deal with Sacky and he failed to do that. When this thing of Vilho gets out of hand, Geingob should not act like he didn’t know. He knows about the sanitiser deal, he knows about the uniform tender, he knows about the N$200 million that was transferred from the ministry [of finance] to August 26.

“I have the audit report, so I know what I am talking about. Geingob is the commander-in-chief, but is not acting on these matters.”

Staring into the camera to virtually address President Geingob eye-to-eye, Amupanda said: “Grootman [big man], when this thing of [Vilho] gets out of hand, you will not be absorbed from responsibility because you had an opportunity to deal with this thing. We are activists and this will not stop just because I am mayor.”