JUSTICE MINISTER Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana on Saturday laid into The Namibian and its editor, blaming the newspaper for a host of "wrongdoings".
Iivula-Ithana, who is also the Secretary General of Swapo, was addressing a Swapo Party rally at Omungwelume in northern Namibia.
She claimed that The Namibian is a bad newspaper, reporting only on negative things like crimes, baby dumping and court cases, and never on positive things that are happening in the country.
Iivula-Ithana claimed that if there was to be war in Namibia, it will be because of The Namibian and its editor, Gwen Lister, who is a white person and always writes bad things, especially about founding President Sam Nujoma when he attacks white people.
"I think people do not understand Sam Nujoma, when he addresses things like the history of the liberation struggle and of Namibia as a whole," she said.
"I can tell you that you still have white people here in Namibia who still see the black people as their baboons. Do you think we do not see you? The Germans have killed Namibians, the Otjiherero-speaking Namibians in thousands and minimised their number totally. There are human skeletons at the coast of Lüderitz, of our people who have been killed. White people must not think we have forgotten," she said.
"Gwen Lister must know she is a white person, and if she continues to write bad and negative things about Swapo leaders and other Namibians, we will take her to task for the wrongdoings committed by her fathers, mothers, grandfathers and her grandmothers. She must not forget that she is a white person," Iivula-Ithana said
"Oswald Shivute, who is working for The Namibian newspaper is here. Go and tell Gwen Lister about that. If she is not going to change her behaviour," she added, saying she is ready "to face" Gwen Lister any time.
She claimed that Lister, who does not belong to any political party, is a member of RDP.
"[But] if she wants her newspaper to be a people's paper, then she has to change her behaviour of writing, [and] change those SMSes in her newspaper, because they are confusing people," she charged.
Iivula-Ithana claimed that the front page of The Namibian is always full of negative stories, while people say bad things about Swapo leaders on the SMS pages.
The Namibian is sending a bad image of Namibia into the world and must stop doing so, the Minister warned.
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I do not understand why Namibian leaders preach reconciliation while they are always persecuting white people living here in Namibia. i am a young black Namibian citizen and i feel that our leaders want us to have a bad image of all white people. if we really want to see ourselves living in a free and independent Namibia then we should all try to get along. Also on the RDP (or any other political party) issue, i do not understand why the Swapo party leaders should be throwing insults at the other leaders and insisting that people belong to the party simply because they did something wrong in the eyes of Swapo. If anybody is giving a bad image of the Swapo party and its leaders, it is themselves....our leaders. Namibia is labeled as a multi-party democracy, but today i see that we may as well call our beloved country a ONE-PARTY government. Soon it will be a crime for a person to join any other party. What happened to the people's "freedom of choice"? Journalists have the right to report on anything that is happening in the country. It doesn't mean that just because the news may concern the founding father we are not allowed to view and comment on it. Swapo party leaders are starting to show us just how "power hungry" they are. Let's try to get along and instead concentrate on the development of our country.