Staff Writer
Contenders for top positions within the Swapo party and those vying for central committee positions will officially kick-off genuine campaigns this coming Monday, September the 12th, the party’s Executive Director, Austin Samupwa has confirmed.
“What you expect that maybe we will fight each other for positions, that’s not going to happen. But we have a program, we are starting with inner-party campaigns, intra-party democracy, starting to talk to one another, may be silently, sometimes you might see here and there where candidates go.”
“But we are not going to fight each other. The official issue of starting with campaigns for individuals that want to be in the top four and also in the central committee, that is starting on Monday the 12th of September 2022 up to congress itself,” he said.
However, various members eyeing positions are said to have already fighting for poll positions already with most using WhatsApp to reach the vast majority of voters within the party.
Samupwa said those wishing for discord and personal fights within the party ahead of and during congress will be disappointed because the running horses have committed to a clean campaign centered on issues as opposed to factional wrangling and mud-slinging.
This is at back of President Hage Geingob having recently stressed that contenders must “kick the ball and not the man”.
“The message of the President is a message that we should further expound on. It is a message that brings hope to all of us, it is a message that brings discipline to all of us. We are focusing on a campaign and not on each other.”
“I want you to remember that before Swapo came in to be the governing party of this country, there was no democracy. Swapo brought democracy in Namibia. So, by the very nature of the Swapo party, all positions in the party are contested, starting from section level up to national level.”
“So, the message of the President is saying that while we practice that democratic right among ourselves and among each other as party cadres, because the constitution of the Swapo party gives us freedom as members to stand for positions, to vote and be voted into positions, I would really disagree with you to say that we came from a chaotic congress.”
“That was not chaotic. It might appear like that for the public but for us who are inside that was democracy at work, where we nominate candidates, and every Swapo member, a delegate to congress including those who are not delegates to congress,choose to follow a candidate of their choice,” he said.
Samupwa has outrightly rejected the notion that as the party heads to congress, the factional slates of Team Harambee and team Swapo are still very much alive.
“Team Harambee and Team Swapo is a result of a democratic process like I have explained. If you have a choice within the Swapo party to follow a particular candidate, that’s your choice. That’s not chaos. You are free to do that. At that point in time, there were those teams yes, but they never meant that Swapo is at war. It was actually an expression of the full democratic fibre that Swapo is known for,” he said.
This Saturday, a crunch meeting will decide either to adopt the politburo list of contenders, change it altogether, or add new names.
So far, defense minister, Frans Kapofi, former youth minister, Jerry Ekandjo and mines minister, Tom Alweendo, have expressed their desire to be nominated for the VP positions.
The politburo nominated Prime Minister, SaaraKuugongelwa-Amadhila and international relations minister, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah to contest for the same positions.
President Hage Geingob is said to have taken a back seat and refused to endorse any of these, although there is speculation that he is gunning for the PM.
Samupwa however rubbished the speculation as an outright falsity.
“Those are pure lies, pure speculation, it doesn’t exist. Nominations, secondments, to be voted for, that’s all that is there,” he said.
In the meantime, the watershed Central Committee meeting of this Saturday is expected to paint a clear picture of whether the Swapo party has resolved to giving Namibia its possibly first ever female president, or the fight will be across gender lines.
