The Redline, Amupanda and the Government

With keen interest, I observed the redline court case that played itself out last week.

First, there is something morally wrong about having this veterinary cordon fence 34 years after independence. It should have been resolved long ago.

Second, the racial and ethnic undertones of the debate are very unfortunate.

Third, Namibia is one country and a unitary state under one Constitution. There is thus no moral logic to keep the country divided because of meat: beef and dog meat, to be exact.

If it is indeed about health considerations, the state has a responsibility to regulate the matter and put health measures in place so that goods and services can move around the country without hindrance.

Job Amupanda did himself a terrible disservice by being unprepared. The Affirmative Repositioning leader has a very unhelpful habit of seeing public opportunities as moments to grandstand and offer half-baked pseudo revolutionary pep talks under the guise of a self-made Namibian Thomas Sankara.

That does not serve him well.

The case he boldly took to court under the law and the court of public opinion is a relevant and serious matter deserving national attention. The error Amupanda made was to take it on alone in the furtherance of his political ambition and his case capsized.

The difficulty with Amupanda’s leadership model is that he wants to shine alone and is thus inclined to underestimate everyone else in the room.

Further, because he is self-focused, he is oblivious to the bigger picture. His case would have been stronger if he left politics at home and prosecuted his case on the law!

As a result of unpreparedness, he speaks in half-sentences and incoherently.

Ideally, Amupanda ought to have brought with him witnesses who are victims of the fence that operates along the old colonial fears of black-owned cattle and other animals.

It cannot be right that because the animals in the north are reared by Oshiwambo, Rukavango and Zambezi region language speakers, these animals are inherently unhealthy and would make Europeans sick if they ate their meat. If that is so, why do tourists who eat this meat when they are north of the fence not get sick?

Or what exactly is the matter that cannot be sorted with proper animal health regulations? Again, the fault is all of us.

Amupanda is merely exposing our inability as a nation to run our affairs with self-respect and dignity. It is most likely that the defendants in the case will be granted the absolution they prayed for, with more prepared and confident jurists.

Then the matter returns where it belongs. The government must tackle this matter once and for all and not to please Europe or America, but in the interest of Namibia and its people.