Senior police officer wins newspaper libel case

A senior police officer has won a defamation lawsuit against the state-owned newspaper New Era in the Windhoek High Court.


In a judgement delivered on Friday, judge Orben Sibeya ordered New Era Publication Corporation (NEPC) and its newspaper to pay N$50 000 to Namibian Police commissioner Andreas Nelumbu, after finding that defamatory allegations against Nelumbu had been published in an edition of New Era in September 2022.


Sibeya also ordered NEPC and the newspaper to unconditionally retract the defamatory statements that were published and to publicly apologise to Nelumbu.

The retraction and apology must be made within 10 days after the court’s judgement, Sibeya directed.

He ordered NEPC and New Era to pay Nelumbu’s legal costs in the matter as well.


Nelumbu, who is the head of the police’s logistics and procurement directorate, sued NEPC, New Era, a former managing editor of the newspaper, Festus Nakatana, and journalist Edward Mumbuu for N$300 000 in connection with the article that he claimed was defamatory.


He claimed the article, published under the headline ‘Top cops plot thickens’, was defamatory in that it contained false allegations that he had stolen a power generator, had been using a police vehicle at his farm in northern Namibia and that under his watch 90 firearms and ammunition disappeared from a police depot in Windhoek.


In the article, Nelumbu was also referred to as “one of the police’s alleged enfants terribles” – a French term meaning “terrible child”.
During the hearing of Nelumbu’s defamation claim in the High Court, Nakatana’s successor as managing editor of New Era, Johnathan Beukes, defended the article, saying it concerned state property, which is a matter of public interest, and that its publication was reasonable, truthful and based on information obtained from credible sources.


Beukes also said the article emanated from a statement that Nelumbu made to the police when he was charged with contraventions of the State Finance Act and theft, alternatively loss of police equipment, in a case registered in September 2022.

The article was also based on search warrants obtained by the police in September 2022, Beukes said.


Mumbuu contacted Nelumbu for comment before the article was published, but Nelumbu chose not to deny or admit the allegations made against him and instead referred questions to police inspector general Joseph Shikongo, Beukes testified as well.


Nelumbu denied that he was given an opportunity to comment on the contents of the article, Sibeya noted.


He also noted that police officers who testified during the hearing of Nelumbu’s lawsuit denied that he used a police vehicle at his farm.
One officer told the court as well that Nelumbu did not have access to the keys of a strongroom in which police firearms were kept, Sibeya recorded in his judgement.


Sibeya found that New Era failed to justify the basis for the allegation that Nelumbu stole a power generator. He further found the allegation that Nelumbu used a police vehicle on his farm had been made without a basis.


Sibeya stated: “I find that, despite the article stating that the plaintiff [Nelumbu] was alleged to have stolen a power generator, when one reads the article in its totality it implies that the plaintiff is a thief, is dishonest, corrupt and ill-disciplined. Whilst ‘alleged’ means without proof, when considered in the context of the whole article in which the word features, the article injures the reputation of the plaintiff.”


The use of the term “enfants terribles” worsened the defamatory statements in the article, Sibeya added.


The article “damaged the reputation and dignity of [Nelumbu] for which he deserves to be awarded proportionate damages”, the judge stated.

Nelumbu was represented by lawyer Francois Bangamwabo.


New Era Publication Corporation and the other defendants were represented by Appolos Shimakeleni.