Gwen Lister still the Managing Director of The Namibian
By Asser Ntinda

It really is very clear that Gwen Lister, the "Managing Editor" of The Namibian - she is in fact the de facto Editor of The Namibian - frantically freaks whenever and wherever she sees the popular blue, red and green colours of SWAPO Party. When John Grobler court case, in which he sued SWAPO Party, started in the High Court early this month, it had all the "ingredients," in Gwen's taste, to warrant a front-page story. And it did.

Headlined "Koevoet libel trial starts," it went on and on with Grobler's submissions to court quoted at length. There was nothing wrong with that. Grobler was the plaintiff, the initiator of the lawsuit. Fair enough for the front-page coverage that he got.

But when it was SWAPO Party Secretary General, Cde Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana's turn to testify and defend SWAPO Party in the matter, The Namibian's steam vanished. So too did the "ingredients" that got Grobler's front-page coverage on day one. Cde Iivula-Ithana's version was buried on page three in the ensuing days.

Not only that, NamRights's Executive Director, Phil ya Nangoloh's contradictory testimonies he made were somehow missing in the story, not even his likening of Koevoet to Nampol's Special Field Force ever got in the story. But it was a serious testimony to say that "Koevoet was like the Special Field Force in the Namibian Police."

The steam got lost, as I have said. Rather than looking at delicate nature of the case, Gwen, in her usual style, dedicated her Political Perspective on February 3, 2012 on how Cde Iivula-Ithana was dressed the day she testified. Gwen can horribly twist facts to fit a case she wants to portray. And clumsily so.

Look at this: "I know we have a SWAPO Party government in power, and I don't need reminding! But something about our Justice Minister Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana going to court this week resplendent in full party regalia really turned my stomach….. The incident also speaks volumes about her character and diminishes the gravity of the serious mandate of justice with which she is tasked," Gwen wrote.

That is hogwash, if not arrant bunkum. I resent people who twist facts to make a case they want to portray. That is double-dealing at best, and double-crossing at worst. In the first place, Cde Iivula- Ithana did not go to court as Minister of Justice. She went there as SWAPO Party Secretary General. She was also not sued as Minister of Justice. She was sued as SWAPO Party Secretary General. As such, it was just appropriate and proper for her to appear in full SWAPO Party colours, ready for combat.

After all, the case was about SWAPO Party, not about the government in which she is the Minister of Justice. So how does this "incident speak volumes about her character and diminish the gravity of the serious mandate of justice with which she is tasked?"

Or is Gwen suggesting that since Cde Iivula-Ithana is the Minister of Justice, she should not appear anywhere dressed in party colours? When nine opposition parties challenged the outcome of the 2009 National Assembly and Presidential elections, those party leaders and their supporters appeared dressed in their party colours. Where was Gwen's mouth then? Do not exhibit your double standards here, Gwen!

We should not be fooled by Gwen's "turning stomach." The real problem with Gwen is not about Cde Iivula-Ithana coming to court in SWAPO Party colours. The problem is Gwen's frustration over her perennial failures to dent SWAPO Party's popularity and reduce its two-thirds majority. That has been her battle for years. Therefore, she believes, the lesser SWAPO Party colours are seen in public, the easier her battle becomes. She wants to see a weakened SWAPO Party, by hook or crook. It is a battle that has defeated even those who had thought they were larger than the SWAPO Party itself. One does not need to look very far to see the many political carcasses littering Namibia's political landscape.

At one point or another, Gwen has hailed those defectors with monotonous regularity. She has never missed any spark that inadvertently pointed to a possible division in SWAPO Party. Using her "liberation credentials" as that "fearless journalist" who founded The Namibian in the heat of the struggle, she has convinced herself that she has all it takes to "make or break" SWAPO Party's backbone. The opposite is actually true.

When SWAPO for Justice was formed in May 1995 by Sackaria Nghiwete, alias Ndjoba, it was The Namibian which jumped on the story: "Disillusioned SWAPO members form new party." The story went on: "The establishment of the party signifies the first formal split in the party SWAPO since independence."

Two months later, it followed up its story with this: "SWAPO for Justice, formed by 30 SWAPO members at Tsumeb in May, now has more than 500 members, including members of Parliament, church leaders and businessmen."

These, of course, were laughable stories and Gwen never asked serious questions. Could Nghiwete, an illiterate private soldier in the Namibian Defence Force, really differ with the SWAPO leadership on policy issues? Could SWAPO for Justice, whose Constitution was scribbled on blank papers with a pencil, really be regarded as a step that "marks a formal division" within SWAPO? SWAPO for Justice is dead now. So is Nghiwete.

The same onslaught by Gwen against SWAPO Party was to play itself out again when Ben Ulenga defected from SWAPO Party and formed his own party, the Congress of Democrats, CoD. The formation of CoD was hailed by Gwen as "victory for democracy," claiming that it "was long overdue," (The Namibian, August 28, 1998.)

"Things must be seriously wrong (in SWAPO) if a person who so completely embodies what SWAPO has and still should be standing for, can go to the extent of publicly taking issues with the party which has been his political and moral home since his youth, and whose principles he ceaselessly fought for, both on the battlefield and in his working and personal life," Gwen wrote further.

Despite the massive publicity Gwen had given to Ulenga in the run-up to the elections in 1999, CoD only gained seven seats in those elections. The seats were reduced to five in the 2004 elections. The 2009 elections were disastrous for CoD. The party only managed to get one seat, leaving Ulenga a lone ranger in the National Assembly. He should be counting his days in the National Assembly. So, there is nothing "seriously nothing wrong or scandalous" in SWAPO. The only scandalous thing there was, was Ulenga's own defection. Today, Ulenga has no fond memories for that stupid decision he took back in 1998.

Then came the Rally for Democracy and Progress, which Hidipo Hamutenya fathered in November 2007, claiming that he would reduce SWAPO Party's "two-thirds majority," and "real democracy would come." Gwen's paper strenuously tried its best to frog-march Hamutenya to every little RDP rally he addressed.

For a moment, the two shared a common goal - reducing SWAPO Party's two-thirds majority. They failed, dismally. As the 2009 elections results showed, the real victims in this joint venture were the opposition parties themselves, not SWAPO Party. SWAPO Party still comfortably enjoys its two-thirds majority.

Gwen has fired several shots at SWAPO Party, but every time she misses. That failure to shoot the target miserably frustrates her. So, she should just say the truth and tell us that it is not really Cde Iivula-Ithana who appeared dressed in "full party regalia that turned my stomach, it is my failure over the years to reduce SWAPO Party's two-thirds majority that really turns my stomach."

We should ask ourselves this question. Has Gwen Lister ever come to the defence of the SWAPO Party government when it is right? That should be our homework to find out and draw lessons. It is therefore not a coincidence that she always sees wrongs, and not rights. It is a calculated plot. We can only ignore it at our own perils.