‘Their actions are not worthy of CoD membership’ – party
By Kuvee Kangueehi
WINDHOEK
The squabbling in the Congress of Democrats (CoD) hit a new gear after the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party decided to expel three of its parliamentarians plus members of its disputatious ‘National Coordinating Committee’ .
At a meeting held on Saturday in the Blue Room at Parliament, the NEC expelled its chief whip Nora Schimming-Chase, former secretary general Kalla Gertze and Elma Dienda from the party.
In a media release issued yesterday afternoon, CoD President Ben Ulenga said the NEC had received a report on the antics of a group of members intent on dismembering the party.
Ulenga said the NEC took particular exception to the activities of some party MPs and public representatives of the party, who are bent on bringing the good name of the CoD into disrepute.
“It resolved that their actions are not worthy of CoD membership and the party has therefore lost its trust in these public representatives, and in terms of Article 5, sub-clause 5.2 resolved to expel the persons from the party.”
In addition, the NEC resolved to expel from the party “all the members of the so-called ‘National Coordinating Committee’, namely Ignatius Shixwameni, Herbert Schultz and Pauline Dempers as announced by Shixwameni at an 8th May 2007 press conference, for anti-CoD activities”.
The NEC further urged the CoD president and other office-bearers to continue to defend and protect the party’s interests. The NEC said all members were expected to work through the party structures and the CoD constitution, and not through the public media.
Meanwhile, the other faction within the CoD, which calls itself the ‘CoD Majority’, also held their own meeting on Saturday morning, at the R