PRESIDENT Hage Geingob yesterday failed to explain the appointment of convicted rapist Vincent Likoro to Swapo’s new think tank, saying the issue should rather be addressed on a ruling party platform.
He called it “a Swapo thing”, which should be addressed through a press conference at the party’s head office.
Yesterday, during a media briefing on his recent attendance of the United Nations General Assembly, he said the topic of Likoro’s membership of the think tank should not be used as a diversion.
Geingob acknowledged it could have a negative impact if citizens hear the ruling party has appointed “someone who did this and this”.
Likoro is a former ministerial adviser, and despite his conviction, he will serve on the ruling party’s top advisory and research body.
He was last week announced as a member of Swapo’s new think tank, which will serve until the party’s elective congress next year.
The former adviser to then minister of lands and resettlement Alpheus !Naruseb was found guilty of rape in the Katima Mulilo Regional Court, following an incident at a lodge in the Zambezi region during the night of 6 to 7 July 2013.
At a media briefing yesterday on the recently concluded UN meeting, Geingob was asked how the appointment of Likoro would reflect on the government’s efforts to fight gender-based violence in the country and the plight of the victim.
Diverting from the question, the president yesterday said he is at “a very high plane” of projecting the country’s future, appealing to the rest of the country to be on the same level.
Geingob maintained that the press conference should have exclusively been on his visit to the UN and investments the government had gone to solicit into the green hydrogen and ammonia industries.
“I do not want to be diverted … we are talking about serious matters that would pull our country out of the morass. As for the Swapo thing, I’ll go to the Swapo office and call a press conference there,” he said.
Geingob did, however, say Likoro had approached him to be reinstated in his previous position as ministerial adviser, but he [Geingob] had said no.
Likoro is currently out on bail while appealing against his conviction.
“I had a big problem with the person involved too when he was accusing me that I should reinstate him to his position of adviser, because he is out of jail, he is now on bail,” Geingob said.
“But I said look, out of jail does not mean freed, and therefore I handed the case over to the attorney general, comrade [Albert] Kawana at the time, and he gave him a legal opinion to say you are not free yet,” the president said.
The party’s secretary general, Sophia Shaningwa, on Tuesday brushed away concerns about appointing Likoro to guide Swapo’s policy direction.
She said his rape conviction was “a bedroom issue”.