Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) leader McHenry Venaani yesterday claimed president Hage Geingob recently asked him to accept the German genocide deal offer, although it included no legal obligation for the former colonial power.
Venaani said this after five political parties represented in the National Assembly (NA) yesterday staged a demonstration to express their discontent with the recent genocide deal.
The deal was tabled in the NA by minister of defence and veterans affairs Frans Kapofi yesterday for discussion.
Venaani said the president told him the government, in collaboration with concerned stakeholders, would renegotiate the amount offered by the German government after the acceptance of Germany’s apology in the NA.
Currently, the agreement or declaration of apology submitted to the NA contains an offer of more than N$18 million as compensation for the atrocities perpetrated against the Nama and Ovaherero communities.
This would be paid to Namibia in various forms, including in support of developmental projects over a period of 30 years.
Kapofi yesterday reiterated that the government still does not find the amount offered by Germany acceptable.
He told the NA the joint agreement is an accomplishment after years of rejection during negotiations.
“Unlike the Jews, Namibia did not have favourable terms when negotiating with the Germans,” he said.
He said the two governments have not yet agreed on the wording of the apology which will be tendered by German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier in the NA.
Steinmeier would have visited Namibia earlier this year, but was halted by the country’s third wave of Covid-19 infections.
Parliamentarians yesterday pointed out that they do not have access to the joint declaration agreement and would want to study it as the discussion continues.
PETITION
Following the demonstration yesterday Venaani called out Geingob for allegedly asking the opposition to “…accept the apology and go renegotiate the quantum”.
“How do you accept an international instrument in parliament and go for renegotiation?” Venaani asked.
Venaani and other opposition party leaders, including Landless People’s Movement leader Bernadus Swartbooi, Rally for Democracy and Progress leader Mike Kavekotora, Nudo’s Joseph Kauandenge, and the Independent Patriots for Change’s Panduleni Itula, among others, handed a petition over to the NA’s deputy speaker, Loide Kasingo, in which they called for renewed negotiations.
They were, however, made to wait in the scorching sun by parliament security and police, which initially blocked the entrance to the parliament courtyard.
Venaani, Swartbooi and Kauandenge led their followers to jump over the locked parliament gates and stormed the parliament building.
‘MONEY OVER BLOODSHED’
The Ovaherero, Ovambanderu and Nama Council for Dialogue (ONCD) yesterday held a public briefing in anticipation of the parliament’s debate on the genocide deal.
The council was part of the nine rounds of negotiations with the two governments and has maintained it accepts the offer although small.
It yesterday said insinuating that the “compensatory amount” is supreme to the acknowledgement and apology by the German government is “tantamount to selling the blood, suffering and souls of their ancestors for money”.
The chairperson of the ONDC, chief Gerson Katjirua, said they accept the offer, and that work can start “with the hope that the N$18,1 billion offer would improve over time”.
“The ONCD chiefs and traditional authorities are not satisfied with said amount . . . However, we resolved to accept this offer, because what is paramount to us it is not the amount of money we are getting from the German government, but the restoration of our dignity,” he said.
Katjirua said the two negotiating teams have reached a common narrative on issues, but pleaded with the German government to relax some of the complex provisions within the draft agreement to allow for transparency and fairness.
“Alternatively, give an undertaking that these provisions will not hinder the implementation of key projects to their final conclusion,” he said.
The group further accused those against the declaration of misusing the genocide for cheap political and personal gratification, adding that the two governments should do everything possible to ensure they get the draft declaration signed and sealed off once all critical outstanding issues are addressed.
“The chiefs urge the Namibian government to engage relevant neighbouring governments and the traditional leaders of the people in the diaspora for thorough updates and briefing with the intention to come up with strategies on how their needs would be addressed through the genocide fund,” Katjirua said.
STAND UP FOR CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY
Meanwhile, the Ovaherero Traditional Authority and the Nama Traditional Leaders Association yesterday said Geingob should stand up for crimes against humanity, and should stop trivialising the painful chapter of their history by accusing genocide descendants of wanting to enrich themselves and control others.
The two traditional authorities said the Ovaherero and Nama people suffered innumerable losses at the hands of the German government.
The group was responding to Geingob reportedly saying there should not be a price on people’s lives, when addressing the Forum of German-Speaking Namibians on Friday.
“The president, with such trivialisation of our pain and suffering, makes one to think twice. Are we on our own? . . . If he finds it difficult to understand that it is standard international practice to compensate for human lives lost, why is he not talking about the material losses that runs into trillions of dollars?” the two groups questioned.
They said Geingob is either ignorant about what is at stake, or he is deliberately trying to please Germany and local Germans.
“By seeking to trivialise the genocide, president Hage Geingob positions himself as a genocide denialist and an agent of Germany…,” the group said.