RUNDU – Swapo Party raised N$871 098 in pledges and table sales at a fundraising gala dinner that took place last Friday at Rundu. A framed picture of the Swapo vice-president and the country’s Prime Minister Dr Hage Geingob was sold for N$8 000. The party intends using the funds in political activities that come with the restructuring of the former Kavango region into two regions of Kavango East and Kavango West, ahead of next year’s National Assembly and Presidential elections.
The fundraising dinner was supported by prominent business personalities and entities in the two regions of Kavango with over 300 guests turning up for the evening. Johanna Kandjimi, the party’s coordinator in the region, initiated the event. Kandjimi took over the Kavango regional coordination from her predecessor, Vincent Likoro, earlier this year.
Addressing the gala dinner, a frank Geingob said that “opposition parties must stop crying foul by accusing Swapo of using state funds to fund election campaigns. You see like now, we are working hard by hosting gala dinners to ensure that we have enough funds while they are asleep.”
Geingob labelled the country’s opposition parties as “seasonal parties” that are only seen during elections. He urged the regional leadership in the sister regions to ensure that all party structures are in place. Geingob vowed the party would not stop engaging the country’s business community, especially the small and medium enterprises, because they are the backbone of the country’s gross domestic product.
“Only when we empower our SME’s can we have enough economic power, therefore we will continue engaging our business people,” he said.
The ruling party’s vice president further said that another reason why government needs to consult the business community is to ensure that laws and policies do not cripple business.
“Sometimes the bureaucracy might be too slow, those are the types of things we want to discuss with our people,” Geingob said.
“I did not come here to deliver a speech, I came to work by making money for the party, so I will end there,” said Geingob jokingly before challenging the region to beat his N$260 000 pledge which he managed to raise from business personnel from the capital, which includes N$15 000 in his personal capacity.
Top government officials who attended the dinner included Deputy Prime Minister Marco Hausiku, Minister of Agriculture, Water and Forestry John Mutorwa, Minister of Veterans Affairs, Nickey Iyambo, Minister of Gender Equality and Child Welfare, Rosalia Nghidinwa, Deputy Minister of Education Sylvia Makgone, Deputy Minister of Health and Social Services Petrina Haingura.
Other notable attendees included members of parliament, regional and local authority councillors and the party’s secretary general.
Towards the end of the event the mood was rather sombre after the Minister of Veteran Affairs, Dr Nickey Iyambo, took the microphone and announced that his special advisor, Curnal Frederick Matongo, died on Friday afternoon.
By Mathias Haufiku