Namibian leader bans foreign TV programmes

Namibia's president, Sam Nujoma, ordered the state television company to stop broadcasting foreign programmes yesterday, only days after he published a list of farms to be confiscated from their foreign owners.

The move was seen as an indication of his continued support for Zimbabwe's President, Robert Mugabe, and will give already nervous investors in southern Africa further cause for concern.

Mr Nujoma wants to expropriate farms owned by foreigners for the resettlement of landless Namibians. Among the farms listed are 91 owned by South Africans and 99 by German nationals. The rest are owned by Americans, Dutch and British nationals. Until its independence in 1990, Namibia was occupied by Germany and then by South Africa.

Mr Nujoma's ruling Swapo party also tabled an amendment in parliament aimed at stopping foreigners from buying farmland.

The President, like Mr Mugabe, has also repeatedly threatened to expel gays and lesbians and to ban homosexual tourists. Now he has declared that foreign films are exerting a "bad influence" on young people.

This week he ordered the state broadcaster to start showing local films that portrayed Namibia in a "positive light". The first victims were the American soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful and the science fiction mini-series Dune, which was replaced by a programme on the recent ruling party congress.

The Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) immediately began revising the schedule and staff were forced to pull old tapes off the shelves to fill airtime. Thousands of callers jammed the station's switchboard demanding an explanation for why some of their favourite programmes had suddenly been dropped.

The President has already banned government departments from advertising in the privately-owned Press, which he said had spread lies about his administration.

Mr Nujoma is in his third term as President, having changed a law that restricts presidents to two five-year terms. He has also fired his pro-reform Prime Minister, Hage Geingob – who was seen as an obvious candidate for president. The move was seen as part of Mr Nujoma's plans to consolidate his power base before his term ends in 2004.

At the Earth Summit in Johannesburg last month, Mr Nujoma spoke up in support of Mr Mugabe. Addressing the summit, he accused the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, of creating chaos in Zimbabwe by refusing to support Mr Mugabe's seizures of farms from white Zimbabweans.