By: Kelvin Chiringa
The Fishrot corruption scandal bail hearing may have been postponed to next year, but the political ramifications created by the latest revelations have come back to sting the Swapo Party.
At the centre of the issue is the question as to why Fishcor gave a Swapo fish quota.
This weekend, the IPC leader, Dr Panduleni Itula, took the fight into Swapo’s territory in a widely published address to his supporters.
Itula made the impression that his party’s approach to the whole issue in seeking accountability from the ruling Swapo party was different from all the other political parties.
He told his supporters that he was set to knock on the door of Fishcor to demand answers.
Itula said there was no provision in the fisheries act for quotas to be allocated to a political outfit.
He also said he wants to find out why the law firm of Sisa Namandje and DHC received funds.
The chief patriot went further to query how and where party president Hage Geingob and secretary-general Sophia Shaningwa got their special designer jackets with party colours they donned at the party’s congress back in 2017.
“And remember, if you see those beautiful outfits, blue, red, green jackets worn by the president, vice president, secretary-general and deputy secretary-general, the question to meme Sophia Shaningwa is simple: Who procured that jacket you were wearing on that day and where was the money from?
“If you don’t know what money went into the account, you should ask, that jacket you were wearing. It’s very close to you now, the jacket you were wearing meme Sophia Shaningwa, who bought it, and with (what) money and from where?
“And why were those jackets only worn by the Harambee Team and not all the other candidates that participated in that election? When did the tailor measure your size meme Sophia and meme Netumbo (Nandi-Ndaitwah), to make sure that jacket was fitting well and if it was a gift, did you ask how was the gift acquired and from where?” he queried.
Itula said he is aware that such jackets were not made in Namibia, “otherwise many (people) will have them”.
“They were the only chosen four,” he said.
Itula has charged further to say that the evidence profiled so far in the High Court demonstrates that there was no doubt that there has been looting in Namibia.
He has characterised Swapo as a looting party that rose to the helm via tainted means.
Itula has challenged his supporters not to be quiet, saying that their future had been stolen from them.
“You are the people whose economy has been destroyed. For 30 years in this country, there has been no economic growth. Our fiscal policy needs consolidation. Our macro-economic activities and features and factors need reviewing,” he said.
In the meantime, short video clips of Otneel Shuudifonya struggling to answer the judge’s questions have gone viral.
Some have parodied responses made by Phillipus Mwapopi, an ex-law enforcer who told the court last week that he would be the first to arrive when his trial resumes if he were to be given bail.
His pronunciation of terms, laced by intermittent confusions between the L and R, left some in stitches while he also confused court jargon “My Lord and Mr Lord”.
