Namibia: Dirty propaganda haunts Nujoma

WINDHOEK – Government has come to the defence of former President and Founding Father of the Namibian Nation, Dr Sam Nujoma, who has allegedly become a victim of covert but malicious propaganda by a section of the opposition that has allegedly accused him of smuggling weapons into the country from Asia.

Minister of Information and Communication Technology, Joel Kaapanda, yesterday said there is a “serious propaganda war campaign” aimed at deliberately tarnishing the image of the Swapo-led government.

Kaapanda said the alleged propaganda, which purportedly came from a Swapo member, is now being oiled by a section of the opposition with the aim to portray government in bad light.

Kaapanda said there are clandestine attempts by some opposition parties that allege that Nujoma has undertaken a secret trip to Saudi Arabia, where he allegedly bought weapons and smuggled them into Namibia. No date has been mentioned about Nujoma’s alleged trip.

Kaapanda said government has it on good authority that the alleged propaganda stunt against the Founding President went as far as suggesting that upon smuggling the weapons into Namibia, Nujoma took them to the Director of Namibia Central Intelligence Service, Lukas Hangula, purportedly for safekeeping, but Hangula allegedly refused to accept them.

After Hangula’s refusal, according to the alleged propaganda as narrated by Kaapanda, the weapons were then taken to General Peter Nambundunga, Acting Chief of the Namibian Defence Force, who also refused to accept them.

Kaapanda said the alleged propagandists went on to say the weapons finally found home in the hands of a certain Ephraim Doze Iikela, an employee in the Office of the Founding President, who allegedly accepted to keep them.

Kaapanda did not mention the opposition parties that are supposedly spearheading the propaganda campaign against the country’s senior statesman, but said plans are on the cards to have such allegations printed in the local media.

The information minister also revealed that there are stories doing the rounds that Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Dr Abraham Iyambo, walked out of a Cabinet meeting in November 2009 after his colleagues rejected his submission.

The details of Iyambo’s alleged submissions are not known.

“All these stories are devoid of any truth, they must therefore be rejected and condemned with all the contempt they deserve,” Kaapanda said, while calling all patriotic citizens in the country to reject such allegations.

He said there are attempts by some opposition parties to sow seeds of division among Swapo members with the aim to destroy the party from within.

- January 28, 2010 by Toivo Ndjebela 

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Source: www.newera.com.na/article.php (accessed on 29.01.2010)

Also see Gwen Lister's column POLITICAL PERSPECTIVE on the same subject in the Namibian: www.namibian.com.na/columns/full-story/archive/2010/january/article/political-perspective-39ac82fae8/