Lubowski’s quest for justice ‘dies with Geingob’

Gabrielle Lubowski, the widow of slain Swapo politician Anton Lubowski, says the death of president Hage Geingob has dashed her family’s hopes for justice.

Anton, who was a prominent lawyer and Swapo member, died on the evening of 12 September 1989 when he was shot with an AK-47 automatic rifle in front of his house in Windhoek. He was 37 years old.

The family hoped they would be able to meet with Geingob this year to discuss the details surrounding his last meeting with Anton on the night of his assassination.

“We were so sure that in 2024 we were going to meet him and that he would finally share with us what was so important that he and Anton had to walk along the then Kaiser Street [now Independence Avenue] without bodyguards, so that no one would overhear their conversation,” Gabrielle said.

Anton met Geingob for dinner before the fateful event.

In an open letter to Geingob in 2019, Gabrielle asked the late statesman what was so sensitive that they could not even sit down in a safe space to discuss the matter.

“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. A few hours later, Anton was dead,” she wrote at the time.

The news of Geingob’s death on 4 February hit the family hard, she said.

“It hit us in the solar plexus. We were deeply unsettled and teary.”

‘Only God can comfort us’

The long-awaited conversation would have put an end to the mystery surrounding Anton’s death, Gabrielle said.

“We were not only looking for the content of that conversation, we were also longing for acceptance and acknowledgement for all the pain, trauma, abuse and rejection we had to endure. Only Geingob could have given us peace of mind and restored our dignity to carry [Anton's] legacy with pride,” she said.

Since Geingob’s passing, the family will now have to accept that they will not get the truth they were so desperately seeking, she added.

“Only God can comfort us now, as we have to accept that a meeting of truth, forgiveness and reconciliation is out of our reach forever.”

‘Reckless allegations’

Over the years, Geingob denied any involvement in Anton’s murder. In a letter to Gabrielle through his lawyer Sisa Namandje, Geingob called her claims absurd.

“Your allegations are particularly absurd and bear a strange feature in that despite the cold-blooded killing of Anton Lubowski having been a subject of police investigation - which required all, including you, with information [to] assist the police - and a public High Court inquest, you are only making such reckless allegations almost 30 years after that,” he said.

Irish national Donald Acheson was fingered as the triggerman in the assassination.

Despite overwhelming evidence against him, he was released after eight months in detention in then apartheid South Africa. No attempt was ever made to extradite Acheson to Namibia to stand trial, and in 1991, he was deported to Ireland as an undesirable alien.