Africa-Press – Namibia. Several opposition parties were noticeably absent from the official commemoration of Genocide Remembrance Day held on Wednesday to honour the victims of the 1904-908 Ovaherero and Nama genocide.
Political parties such as the Independent Patriots for Change (IPC), the Landless People’s Movement (LPM) and the United Democratic Front (UDF) did not send representatives to the event.
IPC national chairperson Brian Black says the party was not present at the event because the descendants of the victims of the genocide were excluded.
Black says IPC believes the descendants of the victims of the genocide should be leading the negotiations on genocide reparations, while the government must just be a facilitator.
He adds that the second reason was that the invitation they received was sent to the party’s national spokesperson, Imms Nashinge, who is the leader of IPC in parliament but not the leader of IPC.
“So, you can’t exclude our leader and expect us to be there.”
Asked why Nashinge did not attend the event when he received an invitation, Black responds, “You can phone him and ask why he didn’t attend.”
LPM spokesperson Lifalaza Simataa says the party could not attend because the party president, Bernadus Swartbooi, and other party leaders were doing a public lecture on genocide at Gibeon.
“Honourable Swartbooi was the one leading the public lectures, so much of the team was at Gibeon.
They were engaging on the importance of genocide remembrance and building the gap between that and the people so they can understand what reparation means and also have insight to our court case.
That’s what the LPM team was doing,” he says. He also says he was not sure if the party received an invitation from the government at all.
One Africa on Wednesday reported that Swartbooi accused the government of pushing a one-sided narrative and refusing to unify the commemoration days observed by the Nama on 12 April and Ovaherero on 2 October.
“This 28 May date was meant to bring all of us together but that’s not the language being used,” Swartbooi was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, UDF spokesperson Mabasen Narib says the party’s no-show at the event should not be interpreted as a boycott, adding that the party is busy with by-elections at Sesfontein, Grootfontein and the Kanjamab constituencies scheduled for 17 June.
“That requires our leadership to be on the ground because our president was the councillor of Sesfontein constituency. He needs to be on the ground to campaign for the candidate that we have fielded for the upcoming by-election. Our focus was on the elections, which is why we were not there,” he says.
Narib says the party will speak on the Genocide Remembrance Day next week.
Those from opposition parties who were present at the event were Popular Democratic Movement leader McHenry Venaani, George Kambala of the Affirmative Repositioning and former Swanu of Namibia parliamentarian Usutuaije Maamberua.
Namibia on Wednesday commemorated its first-ever Genocide Remembrance Day to honour more than 100 000 Ovaherero and Nama people who were killed by German colonial forces between 1904 and 1908.
Speaking at the commemoration event in Windhoek, president Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah recounted the atrocities committed by the German colonial government under its policy of extermination and genocide.
“We should also find a degree of comfort in the fact that the German government has agreed to offer an apology to the affected communities and the Namibian people in general.
We may not agree on the final quantum, but that is part of the complex negotiations we have been engaged in with the German government since 2013,” she said.
For More News And Analysis About Namibia Follow Africa-Press
