OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT

In her 'open letter to the Namibian President Hage Geingob', ​Gabrielle Lubowski​ wrote:

“​You were the last person Anton spoke to. “He shared information with
you that was so sensitive that the two of you could not even sit down for a
cup of coffee, but had to walk along Kaiser Street (now Independence
Avenue), so that no one could hear the conversation. A few hours later
Anton was dead.” Betraying Anton “I still want to tell you that you have
taken everything from us, by first betraying Anton and then smearing his
name.

Life without Anton, who was generous, energetic, hardworking, optimistic,

full of life and courageous, has been difficult. His two children suffered the
most, as they had to grow up without the presence of this magnificent
person, their dad,” Gabrielle wrote in her scathing letter, dripping with
emotion. “Never before, and never after, have I hated someone so much as
I hated you. However, this hate only harmed me, not you. You went from
an exiled freedom fighter to the first prime minister of an independent
Namibia to the third president of Namibia.

By God's grace I have been able to let go of the hate, for my own sake.”
Geingob will be remembered him as “the man who had to betray a brother
to get to the top”. “Nobody is coming back to me; I have spoken to six
people now. I cannot understand why Hage does not want to speak with
me. It is as if I am trying to speak to a dead wall. Do you want me to go
public?” she asked. “I have gone through a lot of trauma and I need to talk
to him in order to put the pieces together.

”
 OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT

Gabrielle insisted that she has the right to speak to Geingob in person. Gabrielle confirmed the
authenticity of the letter yesterday, but said she never wanted it to enter the public domain. She,
however, added that she had repeatedly asked for a meeting with Geingob to hear about what
he and ​Anton​ had spoken about on the night of his murder.

The 37-year-old anti-apartheid activist was shot by a group of assailants in front of his house in
Sanderburg Street in central Windhoek on 12 September 1989. He was hit by several shots
fired from an AK-47 and died from a bullet wound to the head. Gabrielle said Geingob continues
to avoid her, but she will keep on trying to engage him. She said in her letter she had accepted
his refusal to talk to her as an “admission of guilt”.In the letter Gabrielle also wrote that

Late yesterday afternoon, counsel for Geingob, Sisa Namandje, wrote a letter calling Lubowski's
remarks defamatory, adding that there is no truth to them. “Your allegations are particularly
absurd in that there was an investigation.” Namandje said Lubowski was to provide an
unconditional apology by 24 June or face a defamation claim.

In 2013, South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) had exonerated Swapo
from blame any blame linked to Lubowski's death. At the time former TRC investigator advocate
Dumisa Ntsebeza contradicted Gabrielle's remarks that certain members of the “incoming
government” orchestrated her husband's killing. Ntsebeza, who investigated apartheid era
crimes, revealed details of his investigation into Lubowski's murder, including that on the basis
of the information they had received, Swapo was exonerated from any involvement. The family
still pressing on to get file record from TRC, which was chaired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu,
shared its Lubowski with the Namibian government or Swapo, he said: “It is not their TRC. Why
didn't they create their own TRC?” The TRC public hearings started in 1996 and ended with a
presentation of the final report to former South African president Nelson Mandela on October
29, 1998. The TRC hearing dealing with the Lubowski murder took place from 3 to 24 April
1996.

Open wounds:​ Five years later, in 2018, the Lubowski family was still looking for answers, and
said the book by investigative journalist Evelyn Groenink, titled 'Incorruptible - The Story of the
Murders of Dulcie September, Anton Lubowski and Chris Hani', was not helpful. The book
fingers former South African foreign affairs minister Pik Botha for having played a key role in
Lubowksi's death. At the time Lubowski's son Almo said while the book gave his family some
insight into “why” his father was killed, he felt the revelations were not damaging enough to
prompt a relook at the case.

According to him, the only way his family will get justice is if someone was to come forward with
critical information. “I believe it will take somebody that was directly involved coming forward
and talking about the truth. Perhaps on his or her deathbed,” Almo said.
 OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT

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19 June 2019