By: Hertha Ekandjo

Otjiwarongo magistrate’s court’s acting divisional magistrate Karel Otto Muyeghu is embroiled in a tribalism storm after allegedly stating that all Oshiwambo people are part of Fishrot during court proceedings.

This comes after prosecutor Joas Neemwatya from the same court wrote about his concerns on how Muyeghu deals with Oshiwambo people who appear in his court.

“I had always observed that he has a different hostile approach towards Oshiwambo speaking accused, especially the unrepresented one,” said Neemwatya.

According to him, two accused persons attended court on warrants of the arrest last Thursday, one being a Herero speaking and the other an Oshiwambo person.

He further narrates that the Oshiwambo accused only missed court for one day and then came to report himself the following day because the court’s interpreter gave him the wrong date. At the same time, the prosecutor says the Herero accused had not been to court for close to 15 days because he lost his reminder note.

Neemwatya clarifies that both the accused don’t stay in town, and as a prosecutor, he placed both the cases on the roll. He added that he called the Oshiwambo accused into court, but the magistrate refused to hear the accused out.

“The court said it cannot hear the Oshiwambo accused’s case because he was not at court the previous day,” said Neemwatya.

He stated that the Oshiwambo accused was then asked to come back the next day, but the magistrate chose to hear the Otjiherero accused’s case.

“With the history of what I had observed how the magistrate treated Oshiwambo unrepresented accused, I asked whether the reason why the court doesn’t want to hear the Oshiwambo speaking accused was that he was Oshiwambo, seeing as that was the only distinction between the two cases,” he told The Villager.

The prosecutor said that the court became angry upon hearing this.

“The magistrate now wrote a letter to the chief magistrate, Philanda Christiaan, to report these allegations,” he said.

He added that he appreciated that the Muyeghu wrote that letter because the chief magistrate had also made tribal remarks against Oshiwambo speaking people at the Keetmanshoop magistrate’s court in 2019.

“The chief magistrate was my magistrate, and she said that ‘The Oshiwambo people are stealing too much, but once you bring them before the court, you will get them because they fear court’,” said Neemwayta.

According to him, at the time, the chief magistrate, Christiaan, thought Neemwatya was a Zambian national.

He further said she never knew that was Oshiwambo speaking.

“It will be nice to see how she will handle this matter. I’m waiting for her to act,” he said.

“I was shocked that a sitting magistrate will make a statement to the effect that all Oshiwambo people are involved in fishrot,” he expressed.

Muyeghu, in a letter to the chief magistrate Philanda Christiaan, in possession of The Villager, said that he had only called for the Oshiwambo accused to return the next day because it was after 16H00, adding that this was because they had two cases which he had to deal with at the time.

“I have written to your office to inform you of what happened, and if need to look into the matter as, if I have not been fair to Oshiwambo speaking people, I have committed a miscarriage of justice and which I hope not to be the case,” the letter reads.

Muyeghu said that he knows that it can be argued that it was only in relation to the specific case; however, he finds that whenever something like this has been said, it can only be that it has been long coming.

“I place this before your office to take action or steps that will find the remedy to the situation, in the interest of justice,” the letter reads.

The judiciary’s executive director Benhardt Kukuri said that his office was unaware of such a development.

“Usually, the magistrate matters are handled by the magistrate commission. If there are any complaints of that nature, they will raise it with the magistrate commission,” said Kukuri.

He added that if there is an issue of tribalism, then it will be interesting for everybody, as they don’t want tribalism in their judiciary.

“I am not aware of that matter. It is the first time that it is reaching my ears now,” told The Villager.

Attempts to reach Christiaan for comment proved unsuccessful.