Mr. Abed “Bishop” Hishoono, a Namibian primary school teacher has been made to deliver a formal apology to Mrs. Monica Geingos, the First Lady of Namibia, following a defamation lawsuit filed against him.
Mr Hishoono issued the apology to Ms Geingos at the office of her lawyer, Sisa Namandje, in Windhoek.
“I accept and record that there is absolutely no truth in the allegations I made. I further entirely accept that I should never have made such reckless, defamatory and unfounded allegations against Mrs Geingos in the first place,” Mr Hishoono said.
The lawsuit also came with the requirement that he pay her a fine of 250,000 Namibian dollars with annual interest.
In February 2021, Hishoono had made slanderous claims about the wife of the Namibian president in a widely circulated Whatsapp video. In it, he claimed that Mrs. Geingos was indirectly to blame for the decline of Air Namibia. This he alleged was owing to a business interest in the WestAir Aviation company.
To add to these, Hishoono alleged again that Mrs Geingos had previously dated a fraudulent businessman called James Hatuikulipi prior to her marriage to the president. Mr. Hatuikulipi is best known for being the one behind Namibia’s biggest fishing corruption scandal.
The Namibian school teacher went on to say that Mrs. Geingos had been “provided” to the president by Mr. Hatuikulipi.
While addressing the claims made in that video, the First Lady of Namibia said she was “deeply offended” by all he said and particularly by the claim that she was “provided” to her husband by the previously mentioned fraudulent businessman.
She sued him for 350,000 Namibian dollars, although the amount awarded by the court came down to 250,000.
The judge ordered Hishoono to unconditionally retract his claims regarding Mrs. Geingos and formally apologise within five days.
Mr. Hishoono did as requested and whilst addressing journalists at the office of Mrs. Geingos lawyer made the following statement:
“Abusive language and insults, I accept, do not serve the public interest, nor do they advance mature, peaceful and civilised discussion of topical issues or the search for solutions to political and socio-economic issues of the day.”