Ministry of Information executive director Mbeuta Ua Ndjarakana has taken a swipe at defence minister Frans Kapofi over utterances in which he branded opponents of the N.dollars 18 billion genocide pact penned between Namibia and Germany delusional.

According to Kapofi, descendants of those communities – who suffered genocide at the hands of the German colonial regime – cannot directly engage with Germany on the matter.

“There is no way they will be able to make it by directly engaging Germany as a community,” Kapofi was quoted as saying recently.

The erstwhile Swapo party member did not mince his words when facing the defence minister in an interview on Tuesday.

From the genesis, Ua Ndjarakana said, it has been the affected communities that propelled the genocide.

“Prior to the late honourable Paramount Chief Kuaima Riruako taking the bull by the horns and bringing this matter before the National Assembly [in 2006], the government of Namibia had not entertained the concerns regarding the atrocities and barbaric genocide meted out against the Ovaherero, Ovambanderu and Nama communities under German imperial and illegal rule of our country,” said Ua Ndjarakana.

With the Swapo elective congress just 11 months away, Ua Ndjarakana said the genocide subject should not be used for political expediency.

“Kapofi is a political animal and the country is moving towards an epoch, particularly within the ruling party [Swapo] and government for a change of guard where honourable Kapofi will be equally qualified to have aspirations to rise steadily in the ranks of the leadership of the ruling party through the upcoming congress and the next Cabinet following the 2024 general elections,” he added.

What is further peculiar for Ua Ndjarakana is the fact that the contested joint declaration on genocide which culminated from bilateral talks was tabled by the defence minister, when the country has a substantive foreign affairs minister in Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah.

He then dismissed Kapofi’s claim that the current consternation and outright rejection of the agreement are politically motivated.

“What is actually political is for the ruling party and government to want to keep at bay the affected communities and their representatives,” he added.

More so, Ua Ndjarakana urged the government to include all interested parties.

“The dismissive manner in which Kapofi is putting it shows that honourable Kapofi and his folk have deliberately continued to disregard the views of the affected communities and their leaders and that is the worst thing that can be allowed to continue unchallenged,” a candid Ua Ndjarakana asserted.

Born in neighbouring Botswana 58 years ago, Ua Ndjarakana’s forebears were pushed through the Kalahari, ending up in that country while fleeing the brunt of imperial Germany following General Lothar von Trotha’s extermination order of 1904.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency