Kaaronda Rejects Death Threat Denials

Catherine Sasman

30 May 2011

EMBATTLED Secretary General of the National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW), Evilastus Kaaronda, released a press statement on Friday in which he rejected “in the strongest terms possible and the contempt it deserves”, Minister Alpheus !Naruseb’s denial of an alleged threat issued against him.

!Naruseb is alleged to have warned Kaaronda to drop the Government Institutions Pension Fund (GIPF) matter if he does not have a death wish.

!Naruseb has denied having said this at a meeting between union officials and the Swapo Party to discuss improved relations between the two bodies.

Kaaronda said the alleged threat was made in the presence of NUNW president Elias Manga, NUNW national treasurer Barbara van der Westhuizen, and the union’s vice secretary for labour, Alpheus Muheua.

Manga has similarly denied having any knowledge of the supposed threat.

Kaaronda challenged all those present at the meeting, and said: “While it is a pity that this matter was brought into the public domain without it having been discussed among ourselves as comrades, it is also good it is in the public domain for we all know that harm can come [in] people’s ways.”

He added that he does not believe that the Swapo Party has issued the death threat against him, “but perhaps those who in one way or the other participated in the looting of workers’ pension monies in their individual capacities”.

He went on to say that Minister !Naruseb, who addressed the meeting in his capacity as Swapo Party’s secretary of labour, declared at that meeting that the leadership of Swapo questioned his loyalty to the party.

When asked to explain what he meant, said Kaaronda, !Naruseb reportedly said it was because of Kaaronda’s association with the opposition unions “in this thing of GIPF”.

“It was towards the end of our meeting that comrade !Naruseb said it and at the meeting that I must drop the GIPF thing unless I had a death wish,” maintained Kaaronda.

He said !Naruseb should instead help the workers get their missing monies back and must ensure that those responsible for the “loot” be brought to book, “and not threaten the leaders of the workers”.

“There was no issue of threats,” insisted deputy Secretary General of the Swapo Party, Nangolo Mbumba. “They did not go there [to the meeting] to discuss GIPF.”

He reiterated that the party’s Politburo decided that the legal route should be followed in the GIPF debacle.

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