14 January 2021 | Politics
HANDS OFF WAKUDUMO: Kavango East residents who yesterday protested in support of Bonifatius Wakudumo.
PHOTO: KENYA KAMBOWE
KENYA KAMBOWE
RUNDU
Some Swapo Party Women’s Council (SPWC) members in the Kavango East Region argue that the recent attacks and calls for the removal of beleaguered governor, Bonifatius Wakudumo, is part of an alleged ploy to dislodge Swapo from its north-eastern stronghold.
This remark is contained in a petition addressed to President Hage Geingob by a group of Wakudumo’s supporters who yesterday marched through the streets of Rundu.
The group condemned the demands of anti-Wakudumo protesters - who marched in the streets of Rundu on 29 December 2020, calling for the removal of the governor after he appointed a Chinese-born Charlie Min Xie as one of his 20 advisors on development in the region.
KENYA KAMBOWE
RUNDU
Swapo will not remove Bernard Esau and Sacky Shanghala from its Central Committee, and Politburo in the case of the latter, unless they are found guilty in the ongoing Fishrot scandal, party spokesperson Hilma Nicanor has said.
The party is under pressure to remove the two men, implicated in the bribery scandal and in jail since November 2019, from its leadership structures.
Late last year, the Politburo deliberated on the possibility of removing the two former ministers, but that did not happen. Swapo recalled the two from parliament when the Fishrot scandal surfaced more than a year ago, and banished them from the party parliamentary list before the 2019 general election. The move was seen as a ploy to hoodwink voters into believing the party did not condone the alleged acts of the two members, but the fact that it has not acted internally, thereby making Shanghala and Esau part of the decision-makers in the party, gives a different impression.
07 January 2021 | Politics
BETTER DAYS: NEFF’s Abraham Ndumbu and Kalimbo Iipumbu at a press conference in 2017.
PHOTO: NAMPA
KENYA KAMBOWE
RUNDU
One of the reasons why senior NEFF leader Abraham Ndumbu was expelled from the party two days before Christmas is because he allegedly failed to account for N$60 000 he was entrusted with to buy and sell cattle on behalf of the party.
It is also alleged that Ndumbu was trying to overthrow the party s leadership, more particularly its president Epafras Mukwiilongo, whom Ndumbu allegedly described as unfit to be in parliament because he is corrupt and cannot speak proper English.
STAFF REPORTER
WINDHOEK
Swapo will regain the people’s trust when its leaders stop ‘cutting corners’ and become more honest and transparent, party politburo member Calle Schlettwein said.
The party lost its two-thirds majority in the 2019 general election and key cities in the local authority elections held last month.
Perceived corruption by members has cost Swapo dearly, but the party continues to deny this reality.
The party has not internally dealt with rife allegations of corruption, and its senior members Bernhardt Esau and Sacky Shanghala, who have been in jail for over a year over the Fishrot bribery scandal, remain members of the party’s central committee.
KENYA KAMBOWE
RUNDU
For Swapo to make a positive comeback from its dismal performance at the polls recently, the party needs a ‘heart transplant’ in the form of the resignation of its top dogs.
This according to professor Joseph Diescho, who said the party’s leaders must resign or risk making Swapo an opposition party after the 2024 elections.
“Swapo needs a heart transplant. They are calling for a sick heart to pump and it cannot,” he said.
Diescho, who is in self-imposed exile to Germany, made the remarks during a telephonic interview with Namibian Sun in which he shared his views on a number of issues such as the perceived poor representation of people from the Kavango regions in key government positions.