Africa-Press – Namibia. ARRESTED activists Dimbulukeni Nauyoma and Michael Amushelelo will wait until their next scheduled court appearance before deciding if they will proceed with a planned application to be granted bail.
Defence lawyers Milton Engelbrecht and Samuel Kadhila informed magistrate Surita Savage in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court on Friday that they had instructions from Nauyoma and Amushelelo to wait with a planned bail application until they make their next appearance in court on 29 March.
Nauyoma, Amushelelo and Popular Democratic Movement National Assembly member Inna Hengari were arrested in Windhoek on Tuesday, when they led a planned public demonstration on Namibia’s high rate of unemployment.
The demonstration was stopped by the police, after Namibian Police inspector general Joseph Shikongo directed the organisers of the protest in a letter on 17 March that the demonstration should be rescheduled to a date after Tuesday, which was the Independence Day holiday.
Nauyoma, Amushelelo and Hengari have been charged with counts of public violence, malicious damage to property and incitement to public violence, with the state alleging that they “marched about the streets and created a riot”, defied lawful instructions from the police, and damaged a police vehicle with stones.
Nauyoma and Amushelelo are also charged with a count of contempt of court, with the state alleging that they violated orders made by the Walvis Bay Magistrate’s Court on 30 January and the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court on 22 February, when Amushelelo was released on bail following previous arrests in connection with public demonstrations in which he was involved.
Amushelelo was granted bail on those occasions on condition that he should not again be charged with similar offences involving alleged public violence.
Nauyoma and Amushelelo are remaining in custody after the state agreed on Friday that Hengari could be granted bail in an amount of N$5 000, on condition that she may not take part in any illegal demonstrations.
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