Affirmative Repositioning movement leader Job Amupanda wants to use text messages sent to him by one of deputy minister of finance and public enterprises Maureen Hinda-Mbuende’s witnesses in a defamation of character case in which he is being sued for N$1 million.
The lawsuit came after Amupanda posted a picture of a woman on his Facebook page in July 2021 and captioned it “deputy minister of finance Maureen Hinda during the liberation struggle. Maureen was so WizWiz. It’s like she won’t think twice about taking out a knife”.
Hinda-Mbuende alleged that the post conveyed a message and was understood by the public to mean that the photo was hers in her younger days.
She further claimed that the photo created the impression that she was a “street girl ready to fight and that she, being a Damara, would not hesitate to stab anyone”.
In his affidavit filed on 10 August, Amupanda said the minister indicated that she would rely on a witness testimony from columnist Vitalio Angula.
Amupanda said to date, Angula’s witness statement has not been provided.
“However, on or around 25 July, I received text messages from Angula,” Amupanda said in the court document.
According to Amupanda, the content of the text messages purportedly sent to him by Angula were disturbing and should be brought to the attention of the court.
“I, therefore, pray to this court to be allowed to amplify my witness statement only to the extent where I alert the court that I received a message from Angula, of which the message has content that to me is disturbing, but of which the content is self-explanatory.
One of the text messages attached to Amupanda’s affidavit reads: “I will call you tomorrow, I want to testify but I want to be balanced. I have never testified in court before, so I just agreed for the experience.
Whatever you and Maureen did in the hotel room that boiled over onto social media is between you two, I will just give my perspective as a columnist and analyst who followed the drama.”
Amupanda’s lawyer Kadhila Amoomo wrote to Hinda-Mbuende’s lawyer Doris Hans-Kaumbi to say his client wishes to file additional statements attaching Angula’s text messages.
However, Hinda-Mbuende’s lawyer wrote back to Amupanda’s lawyer to say: “we hold instructions to refuse your request to amend your witness statement at this late stage and shall oppose an application to do so.”
Amupanda referred The Namibian to his lawyer when contacted for comment yesterday.
Amoomo did not respond to a text message sent to him at the time of going to print yesterday. The lawsuit started in court last week and was postponed to 24 and 25 October.
Leave a Reply