Swapo defends Geingob against Diescho

WINDHOEK, 05 SEP – The ruling Swapo Party has come out in defence of its leader and the country’s leader – President Hage Geingob against purported attacks from veteran academic, Professor Joseph Diescho.
Swapo Secretary for Information and Mobilisation, Hilma Nicanor convened a press conference on Tuesday to respond to Diescho following the circulation of social media messages that Geingob allegedly deviated from the agenda of Swapo’s central committee (CC) meeting in Rundu last month.
According to the messages on social media, Geingob allegedly belittled Diescho at the said meeting, referring to him as a “fool and failure”.
Nicanor was dismissive about Diescho and slammed his alleged labelling of Geingob as a tribalist.
“Swapo, its president and the entire leadership sees no value, neither a standing reason to discuss Diescho,” Nicanor said and then challenged him to come forth with evidence and reveal his so-called informants of the meeting.
“We further advise Mr Diescho to engage himself with productive matters instead of wasting his valuable time, self-claimed and proclaimed by some as intellect,” she said.
Nicanor said the aims and objectives of the ruling party were to combat retrogressive tendencies such as tribalism, nepotism and regionalism.
Contacted for comment on Tuesday, Diescho maintained that four individuals that were present at the meeting informed him about the president’s utterances about him.
“Four people that are very senior in the Swapo CC and Politburo are on record that Geingob mentioned my name. He called me a fool. That he is mentioning ‘that fool because I am in his region. That is why I got rid of that fool at Nipam’,” claimed Diescho.
He also challenged Swapo and national broadcaster NBC to release an audio tape on which Geingob is apparently heard making those remarks.
On whether he accused the president of being a tribalist, the academic said: “He may be guilty of other things but the president is not a tribalist. I commend him for really fighting against it.”
However, according to Diescho, Geingob’s actions and modus operandi perpetuates tribalism.
“The way he is behaving is promoting tribalism. Why has he surrounded himself with every other tribe except the Kavangos? Where are the Kavangos around him? Why are they marginalised,” he claimed, adding that people from the two Kavango regions were the second most populous group in Namibia.
Diescho stated that he had no interest in fighting Geingob.
“He is my president. I respect him and Namibia is the only country that I can call my motherland.”
Diescho said, if anything, Geingob must invite him to his meetings if he intends to point out his wrongs.
“No one is an angel. But you cannot talk about me in my absence. I am not a CC member, nor was I present at the meeting and neither am I part of the Politburo.”
Diescho was the Executive Director of Nipam (Namibia Institute of Public Administration and Management) from July 2013 to December 2015 when he was dismissed. – NAMPA