Protesters due in court amid outcry over arrest

THE parliamentarian and two activists who were arrested on Tuesday during a demonstration against unemployment will appear in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court today amid a local and international outcry over their incarceration.

The Namibian Police have also come under increasing pressure over the alleged heavy-handed tactics they used against the protesting unemployed youths.

Lawyer Kadhila Amoomo, who is part of the legal team that has been assembled to represent the trio, said on social media his clients, Dimbulukeni Nauyoma and Michael Amushelelo, are in good spirits and determined to keep addressing youth unemployment.

“They are being detained at Seeis Police Station. We will update you on their appearance in court on 23 March,” he said.

Nauyoma and Amushelelo were arrested alongside Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) member of parliament Inna Hengari.

Some organisations and individuals have condemned their arrests, including Fadzayi Mahere, the spokesperson for Zimbabwe’s opposition party, the Citizens Coalition for Change, Joseph Kalimbwe, the spokesperson for Zambia’s United Party for National Development, and the Young Democrats Union of Africa, of which Hengari is the secretary general.

“We all know member of parliament Hengari is not a criminal. We call for her release,” Mahere said on Twitter.

Kalimbwe said: “Our friend and lawyer, Nambili Mhata, has just joined our legal team alongside Kadhila Amoomo to help Hengari and Nauyoma [to] be safely released.”

PDM member Vipua Muharukua on Tuesday in an interview with the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) said there is a huge divide between the “haves” and “have-nots” in the country, causing the Namibian youth to suffer.

“Some 51% of young Namibians do not have employment, and young people make up 60% of Namibia’s population, and that’s a huge amount of energy sitting idly, which Namibians can use to make ourselves a better nation,” he said.

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European Democrat Students, a pan-European centre-right student and youth political association, on its Twitter page also called on Namibian authorities to release Hengari immediately.

“The secretary general of our Young Democrat Union of Africa, Inna Hengari, was illegally arrested in Namibia while protesting against the high rate of youth unemployment in the country.

“We call on Namibian authorities to release her IMMEDIATELY,” the tweet reads.

PDM secretary general Manuel Ngaringombe has condemned the violent intimidation and arrest of young people.
“It’s an attempt to silence and immobilise them in their noble and warranted plight for economic freedom and an effective government that prioritises job creation for the advancement of its people.

“The Public Gatherings Proclamation of 1989 was a strategic tool of the apartheid government, designed and implemented to combat the resistance of freedom fighters who dared to imagine a liberated, prosperous, just, and humane Namibia for all – young and old,” he said.

Ngaringombe in a statement said they stand in solidarity with not only unemployed young people in Namibia, but with all Namibians acting to stand against the status quo of job desperation, and who know that the crisis of youth unemployment is a threat to all Namibians.

“It’s a shared burden with far-reaching consequences to which no Namibian is immune. We continue to advocate the declaration of a state of emergency over youth unemployment.

“We resist the birth of a police government in Namibia and condemn the growing culture of police brutality and human rights violations that threaten the actualisation of the right to protest. As such, we demand the immediate release and dropping of charges against Hengari, Amushelelo and Nauyoma,” he said.

Ngaringombe said there has been an infringement of their fundamental human rights and those of all Namibians to assemble peacefully without arms, as protected by Article 21 (1) (d) of the Namibian Constitution.

“As such, we demand the immediate release and dropping of charges against Hengari, Amushelelo and Nauyoma. The PDM urges the government to pursue an urgent round-table discussion with all relevant stakeholders to afford the youth unemployment crisis the necessary attention it deserves,” he said.

‘POLICE CHIEF CANNOT PROHIBIT DEMONSTRATION’

Lawyer Norman Tjombe said earlier this week that although police chief inspector general Joseph Shikongo can impose conditions on a public gathering, he cannot prohibit a demonstration.

This comes after Shikongo wrote to Amushelelo, directing him to reschedule the nationwide protest on unemployment for “security reasons”.

The Namibia Economic Freedom Fighters then launched an urgent application in the High Court to interdict Shikongo’s decision to stop the protest from taking place on Independence Day. The party also asked the court to rule that they could legally proceed with their demonstrations.

The court dismissed the application.

Tjombe said it should be noted that demonstrations are a human right guaranteed in the Namibian Constitution, and Shikongo should be advised that there is a good reason why it is mentioned in the Constitution.