Swartbooi dares Hage to fire him

Swartbooi dares Hage to fire him‘He will have to gets the guts from somewhere’ Bernadus Swartbooi says President Hage Geingob asked him to resign but he refuses to do so. JEMIMA BEUKES



Tub-thumping deputy lands minister Bernadus Swartbooi says there is no way President Hage Geingob will receive a resignation letter from him.

Sitting behind his desk in his office in the lands ministry yesterday morning, Swartbooi vehemently denied a statement made by the presidency that he had offered to resign as deputy minister. In fact, he insisted he had done nothing wrong.

According to him, the president told him, “If you don’t apologise, you leave that office,” but is yet to formally dismiss him.

“I have little trust in them, I am now worried that they will fake my signature to tell the world that I have resigned. The point is the president will not get a resignation from me, he will have to get the guts from somewhere to fire me,” said Swartbooi.

Swartbooi is especially aggrieved that President Geingob made no attempt to listen to his concerns over land distribution, but was only interested in an apology.

“He told me that when Sam Nujoma fired him he left for America and that if I do not agree that I should do the honourable thing and resign. He said, ‘don’t stay in a system, break all the rules and you think you will still be here’,” related Swartbooi.

Swartbooi said he patiently and respectfully tried to work with his senior, Utoni Nujoma, and even tried to adjust his pace to Nujoma’s - who is much older than him - but nothing worked.

“I realised that he does not listen to me, the Land Bill was tabled and it was withdrawn, the land conference was announced and it was cancelled… both are failures and these are the circumstances I find myself under,” he said. 00

Swartbooi insisted that his responsibility was to promote the interests of the Namibian people and that the current land reform system was not doing them justice.

“Land should unite us, not divide us. The land programme must be organised so that young Namibians have access to land in order to make meaningful contributions to the economy,” he said.

Leader in crisis

The Swartbooi saga has caused uproar in Namibia and while the public is openly debating the issue, very few political analysts and social commentators would talk about the matter on record.

The events of the past few days indicate a step-by-step process followed by the president in response to Swartbooi’s comments at Hoachanas two weeks ago.

Lobbying the traditional leaders failed. Following this, the Politburo could not come to a decision about Swartbooi’s future. Insiders say that doors were “shut in his face”.

Namibian Sun understands that the president has lost the political support of many traditional leaders and one political commentator is of the view that he again failed when he turned to the party.

There are reports that the Politburo was hung on Monday night.

Namibian Sun has been reliably informed that this is what prompted Geingob to convene an urgent meeting at State House on Tuesday where he tried to convince Swartbooi to apologise for his remarks. Swartbooi refused to budge, which is said to have angered Geingob even more.

However, according to Swapo deputy secretary-general Laura McLeod-Katjirua, the Politburo meeting never discussed Swartbooi and was not convened to do so.

During a media briefing yesterday, the party explained that the Politburo meeting on Monday night was not a special or urgent meeting but a scheduled one.

“The political bureau congratulated the newly elected secretary Eunice Iipinge and deputy secretary Fransina Kahungu of the Swapo Party Women’s Council and also congratulated the leadership and entire rank and file membership of SPWC for successfully holding their seventh congress,” stated McLeod-Katjirua.

She reiterated that only the matters listed in the media statement were discussed.

There are also unconfirmed rumours that mass marches are to be organised in solidarity with Swartbooi in Windhoek and Keetmanshoop this weekend.