Advocates Rap Geingob Over the Knuckles

Jo-Maré Duddy

28 June 2011

The Society of Advocates has accused Trade and Industry Minister Hage Geingob of making premature, irresponsible, unfair and sweeping statements regarding the High Court’s recent ruling on Wal-Mart.

“When a high-profile politician criticises a High Court order, he or she should appreciate that, if the words used are not carefully chosen, they may be taken out of context and published internationally, tarnishing Namibia’s good name and reputation,” the Society of Advocates of Namibia (SAN) said in a statement.

The scolding came as Geingob was in Pretoria yesterday to discuss the Wal-Mart issue with South African counterpart Rob Davies. Unfortunately, the meeting was unexpectedly cancelled, Geingob confirmed.

Representatives of his ministry and a delegation from the Competition Commission of Namibia (NaCC) at the same time met with a jacked-up legal team in South Africa, preparing for their appeal against the High Court approving Wal-Mart’s unconditional merger with Massmart in Namibia.

In his release, SAN vice president Reinhard Tötemeyer was particularly upset about Geingob’s recent media statement in which he expressed his disappointment with the High Court’s decision. In it, the minister accused the court, among others, of not regarding the broader issues around small and medium enterprises (SMEs), job creation and local participation as important.

Geingob said the court’s “blanket sanction” of Wal-Mart taking over Massmart without waiting for the appeal lodged against it “may appear as a retention of the apartheid legacy”.

Tötemeyer said the minister’s comments received wide publicity, also internationally.

“The minister’s criticism was not only unfortunately worded, but given the fact that it contained sweeping statements before the reasons for the High Court’s order became available, also premature and irresponsible,” Tötemeyer said.

He said ordinary Namibians may think that Geingob implied that the High Court was “somehow promoting the ‘retention of the apartheid legacy’ and contributing to the ‘psychosis of apartheid'”.

This while the High Court’s paramount function is to uphold the Namibian Constitution which condemns the practise and ideology of apartheid in the strongest terms, Tötemeyer said.

He said anybody has the right to fairly and reasonably criticise a judgement, but it should be accurate and fair.

Tötemeyer further said that the Constitution “expressly prohibits a member of Cabinet from interfering with judges in the exercise of their judicial functions”. The court’s dignity, independence and effectiveness must be protected, he said.

“The minister’s criticism was neither accurate nor fair, infringed the dignity of the High Court and is decried by the society,” Tötemeyer said.

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