This morning I woke up to something somewhat puzzling – a front page newspaper article about my own personal blog where I simply share ideas.
My blood boiled after yet another uncalled for attack on me by a former friend, Ronelle Rademeyer who works for Die Republikein. I phoned Ronelle and repeatedly asked the question of what she is trying to achieve by publishing such “news”. To say she was at a loss for words is an understatement of note……
Let me start by explaining the context in which this whole debacle is happening.
Ronelle, her husband Lourens and their two sons, Wilhelm and André, were friends (house friends) since 1998. Their kids spent many afternoons with mine and my wife drove them around to extra-murals because Ronelle was allegedly at work. We went away on weekends and in my view, were good friends. As life happens, we saw less of one another over time as we all got busy.
This now brings me back to as my complete loss of understanding and patience.
For almost two years now, I’ve wrongfully been accused by a false media narrative of playing all sorts of roles in what is called the Fishrot matter in Namibia. I have never been part of Fishrot. In June 2017, the then Attorney General of Namibia, Sackey Shangala instructed me in his professional capacity, mandated by the SWAPO Party’s then Secretary General, instructing me to manage the funding of their election campaign. With all the necessary documentation in place, I duly did so and acted on instruction as all attorneys are supposed to do.
Unfortunately, this false media narrative is borne from a principle repugnant to our society – guilt by association. So, does this mean that because she was a so called “friend” that Ronelle Rademeyer is now also guilty- because of her association with me? By creating this false media narrative through all the prejudicial pre- trial publicity, the Namibian media has stolen my constitutional presumption of innocence, and as a result flagrantly infringed upon my constitutional rights.
Well, this piece is meant to express my views on Ronelle Rademeyer’s conduct as a journalist.
She, as a professional journalist, bases her information on malicious rumours instead of facts. She also colluded with Min Leon Jooste, Minister of state owned enterprizes, about my affidavit at a time when the ACC instructed me to remain silent and keep everything confidential, and thus they would to( which they did not).
Ronelle has never attempted to get my views or hear my side of the story. She also neglected to disclose that Monica Geingos is one of the owners of Die Republikein and The Namibian Sun. How could anything they publish not be politically motivated? I also know that Dani Booysen, Editor-in-Chief of Die Republikein said that they will never leave me alone. What a friend she turned out to be….
The thing that I simply cannot get my head around is that supposedly intelligent researchers cannot ask or answer the obvious and important questions:
Why are the other attorneys who also acted on instructions like Jurie Badenhorst, Sisa Namandje and Sackey Amoomo not also treated (mistreated) like me?
Where did the money end up? Who received the money? Why aren’t they prosecuted?
In the true sense, I am a whistleblower. As soon as I became aware of the possible links to entities and people implicated in the Al Jazeera Fishrot exposé, I immediately reported all suspicious transactions, through my then partner and compliance officer, Celeste Coetzee. Celeste Coetzee then lied under oath about her involvement in the reporting of such.
Who is the mastermind, person on whose authority this whole thing was orchestrated and who are the real beneficiaries? Who are the donors and why would they donate such large amounts? In other words, where did the money go? – follow the money trial……..
I got clean audits by the Financial Intelligence Centre (in fact, I was commended by how we conducted our firm’s compliance aspects), the Law Society of Namibia and privately. Why is this not disclosed?
Why would the ACC go against their own agreement of confidentiality?
The Banks, the auditors and the Bank of Namibia are all reporting institutions under the Financial Intelligence Act- why did they not report the payments to the authorities? Why are they suddenly blameless?
If I am being blamed for being a paymaster, then all the Banks are, by definition, also paymasters- why are they not brought to task? Or are they too powerful?
I can think of many more, and will most definitely write about those too.
The most astonishing thing about the timing of the article, is that it appeared only a few days after an article I wrote on my blog www.marendeklerk.com was published. This article is about the motivations and consequences of fake news.
My treatment by people like Ronelle Rademeyer evoke images of of McCarthysim:
“Today, McCarthyism is synonymous with any perceived government activity that suppresses unfavorable political or social views by limiting or undermining vital civil rights and liberties under the pretext of maintaining national security. As understood, it is a means of government harassment that includes blacklisting with intent to pressure people to follow popular political beliefs. Thus anyone who makes insufficiently supported accusations or engages in unbalanced investigations against persons in an attempt to silence or discredit them is said to be practicing McCarthyism. This practice in effect represents both a denial of due process and a fundamental breach of civil liberties”
So allow me to quote and paraphrase one of the McCarthy accused’s lawyers when he directed a question to Senator McCarthy, and now ask Ms Rademeyer who is so quick to cast judgement:
“Have you no sense of decency, madam, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”
Remember that in law, accusation is not proof and conviction depends on real evidence and due process of law.
Might this be a case of “the lady doth protest too much?”…………….
