REGIONAL and Local Government deputy Minister Kazenambo Kazenambo threatened to resign last week after a serious stand-off with his boss Jerry Ekandjo over a tribal witch-hunt targeting civil servants suspected to be Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) supporters.

Kazenambo, who has ruffled feathers with his call for a non-Oshiwambo president, had to be persuaded by Prime Minister Nahas Angula not to carry out his threat because it would embarrass the Government.
The scuffle between Kazenambo and Ekandjo comes in the wake of an embarrassing letter written by the latter to the Indian High Commissioner to Namibia to withdraw a fully funded Indian Government scholarship to Lilly Johannes, a senior Human Resources Practitioner in the Ministry of Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development.
Authoritative sources privy to the incident which led to the commotion between Ekandjo and Kazenambo said Johannes was being victimised because of her tribe.
“The only crime she committed is because she is Kwanyama and being suspected of being RDP,” said the source.
Informanté is in possession of a letter to the Indian High Commissioner Tsewang Topden signed by Ekandjo dated 21 January, stating that his Ministry had “decided to withdraw/cancel the nomination of its staff member, Ms Lilly Johannes, Senior Human Resources Practitioner for the course in Masters Degree in HRP and Development . . . “
When approached for comment on Ekandjo’s embarrassing letter and his consequent intervention, all that Prime Minister Angula could say is: “That’s a closed case.”
Ekandjo refused to shed light on his letter to the Indian High Commissioner seeking to terminate Johannes scholarship, saying: “I don’t speak to Informanté. Not on earth or in heaven.”
After Angula’s intervention, Ekandjo, who is also Swapo Secretary for Information eventually threw in the towel but asked his Permanent Secretary Erastus Negonga this time to inform the Indian High Commission of his u-turn to rescind the withdrawal of the scholarship.
“Following our further probing into the matter and becoming privy to additional information, the Ministry of Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development resolved to reverse the decision to cancel the nomination of Ms. Johannes to take up her studies in the Republic of India as originally scheduled. Kindly set aside the decision conveyed to Your Excellency in the above mentioned letter by Honourable Minister...” states Negonga. 
The Indian Government had already paid flight tickets and finalised scholarship arrangements for Johannes, to pursue a Masters Degree in Human Resources from 1 February to 31 January, 2011, when Ekandjo sent a directive to Topden seeking the cancellation of Johannes’ scholarship.
Kazenambo was reportedly infuriated by Ekandjo’s insinuation that it was the Ministry’s collective decision to deny Johannes study opportunity, while he viewed as a tribal purge.
Although Kazenambo refused to comment on the debacle, the authoritative source said the Deputy Minister almost resigned out of principle until Angula assured him that Johannes’s scholarship will not be cancelled.
“How do you deny a deserving ordinary citizen an opportunity when you had given Chinese scholarship to the elite recently. It is just embarrassing,” said the source.
“She was being victimised on suspicion that she has RDP links because she is Kwanyama. How do you start victimising everybody of being RDP just because they are Kwanyama.”
“Today it’s you but tomorrow it could be me,” adding that “tribalism has now become cancerous.
“It is not even a Swapo scholarship. It is an Indian Government scholarship. Now they are using the Indian High Commission to enhance their tribal fantasies,” said the source.
Ekandjo appears to have been caught off-guard because his decision came after the Public Service Commission had approved Johannes’ scholarship to India with full remuneration when he tried to rescind  the decision.