Download - Media Institute of Southern Africa

State of the media in Southern Africa 2002
2002
the Society of Advocates on charges
of contempt of court over statements
made in connection with a controversial
High Court case. The contempt
charge was laid by Judge President
Pio Teek in early 2001.
On November 26, 2002, Prosecutor
General Heyman announced that
he had decided against prosecuting
the two daily newspapers and the Society
of Advocates. He has also decided
not to prosecute Democratic
Turnhalle Alliance (DTA) Youth
League Secretary General Joseph
Kauandenge on a similar charge.
Heyman’s only explanation for his
decision was that in his opinion there
was no prima facie case against the
newspapers, the Society of Advocates
and Kauandenge.
Judge Teek laid the complaint after
the Society of Advocates issued a
media statement on behalf of the Bar
Council on 29 November 2000, while
a hard-fought and divisive case about
the planned deportation of the former
representative of the National Union
for the Total Independence of Angola
(UNITA) in Namibia, Jose Domingos
Sikunda, was still pending in the
High Court.
In the statement, issued under the
name of the Society of Adovates’
then vice-president Susan Vivier, the
judge was sharply criticised for not
directing the mMinister of hHome
aAffairs to comply with a month-old
High Court order for Sikunda’s immediate
release.
Both newspapers reported on the
Society of Advocates’ media statement,
and shortly afterwards published
editorials commenting critically
on the case and the judge’s refusal
to ensure that the previous court
98 So This Is Democracy?
order for Sikunda’s release was carried
out.
Sikunda was eventually released
after spending more than three
months in detention despite the order
for his release, and Home Affairs
Minister Jerry Ekandjo was convicted
of contempt of court for not
carrying out the initial order.
Judge Teek had by then recused
himself from the case, criticising the
two newspapers and the Society of
Advocates for what he termed “the
highest order of gross interference
and intimidation in Namibian legal
history” and “a blighted and scurrilous
attack on my integrity as a
judge.”
He accused them of “a deliberate
assault on and threat to” not only his
independence, dignity and effectiveness
as a judge, but that of the entire
judiciary of Namibia.
Deputy Prosecutor General
Herman January added that a decision
on whether to prosecute a similar
charge laid after the South West
Africa People’s Organization
(SWAPO) Youth League demonstrated
on the steps of the High Court
in February 2001 - shortly before
Ekandjo was found guilty of contempt
of court - has not been taken
yet.
The completed police docket on
that complaint still has to be forwarded
to the Prosecutor General’s
Office, January indicated. He and
Heyman further indicated that they
have received information that a
similar complaint is being investigated
against the Law Society of
Namibia, but no docket has been received
by the Prosecutor General’s
Office on that case either.