By: Kelvin Chiringa
The AR Movement is adamant that they will go ahead with the plan to summon their leader Job Amupanda to explain the salary and tariff increases.
The movement wants Amupanda and Illse Keister to explain the justification behind a 3.7% electricity tariff hike to as well as who drew and approved the budget.
While the numbers themselves are there for everyone to see and interpret, the AR has said they want Amupanda to explain a headline by the media that he was set to reap a fat salary out of the budget.
“We have people that are representing us, we cannot be briefed by the CEO, we cannot be briefed by the strategic executive or whoever. We sent our two representatives there, they account to the movement, and they account to the masses.
“They sit in meetings, the management committee and they must brief the Movement so that we are in a better position to decide what must happen,” said AR spokesperson Simon Amunime.
Amunime told The Villager that no one, not even Job himself is above the Movement’s constitution.
“All individuals are subordinate to the organisation and decisions of the collective are binding. So, there is no individual that is bigger than,” he said.
According to Amunime, everything that happens at the City of Windhoek is attributed to the AR.
“A municipality can’t be sustainable by relying on 60% of their revenue coming from water and electricity.
“The minister has rejected the 5% increase. And that was a resolution that was taken in November last year. It was taken under the leadership of Fransina Kahungu.
“But what was reported in the media is that the politicians will have a 5% extra. So, we want to understand those dynamics. What is correct, what are the facts?” he said.
For this reason, he said, the Movement built up on a Marxist-Fanonian-Sankarist ideology that stands for the poor cannot keep quiet.
Amupanda is yet to face his team, currently hunkered in the north after an accident that made headlines on social media.
It is presently unclear whether he has responded to the request by the party to stand before a committee set up to quiz him on what role he played in the formulation of the budget.
The date for the meeting has so far been kept under the wraps.
The Villager’s attempt to reach out to Amupanda was fruitless.
While Amupanda himself has denied everything, supported by a statement released by the city this week, what is clear is that the Movement is not satisfied.
The latest development comes seven years since the AR was formed after Amupanda, Dimbulukeni Nauyoma and George Kambala staged a mock landgrab in Kleine Kuppe.
Over the years, Amupanda has emerged as the face and the soul of the movement that inspired the youth across the country.
In 2015, the trio challenged President Hage Geingob over urban land and forced him to agree to identify land within Windhoek and some regions where houses were supposed to be built.
Over the years, the AR has put up some structures as he prepared for contesting the local authorities’ elections in 2020.
Even then, the Movement has remained fragmented with different regions seemingly operating autonomously.
This latest development could prove that even though Amupanda has been the youthful face of the AR, the structures within the movement could have more power than he does.
But like the IPC, will they suspend Job?
The jury is still out on whether the AR can afford to have Amupanda represent them at the city if they are to find glaring inconsistencies in the budget, or if he is found to have fattened his pockets owing to his new-found position.
The fact that Amupanda’s leadership has never been challenged or questioned before makes for an interesting observation as to what the movement will do with him after the meeting.
Sources from within have stated that they will not treat him with kids’ gloves.
