ONDANGWA – All People’s Party (APP) secretary general Vincent Kanyetu said 400 people particularly from the ruling party Swapo and the official opposition, Popular Democratic Movement (PDM), recently joined APP in the northern regions.
The announcement was made at a press conference held at the party’s office in Ondangwa yesterday.
Those who joined include PDM’s regional coordinator Asser Vincent and the Shinime Iivula branch secretary Johannes Johannes.
The duo accused PDM of neglecting its leadership in the regions and its supporters at the grass-roots level after the elections.
“PDM treats us like a ladder to get what it wants – it doesn’t really care about what we do, hence I am leaving and I am leaving with everyone who joined through me,” said Vincent.
Kanyetu and the party vice-president Madala Nauyoma are in the regions to mobilise voters for the presidential and National Assembly elections slated for later this year.
Kanyetu is confident of canvassing many votes. He said mobilisation has been done in Oshana, Omusati and Ohangwena regions and that he is currently busy with Oshikoto.
Kanyetu also used the conference to reject the Electoral Commission of Namibia’s (ECN) stance that it would not make use of paper trails in this year’s elections.
Kanyetu said claims that it would cost Namibia N$160 million to acquire a voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) as reported in a daily newspaper are some cheap excuse.
APP thus appealed to ECN to turn to the government for funds to guarantee the voters fair elections.
“We are rejecting this cheap excuse. We have lost more than N$160 million and ECN must make sure that these elections must have paper trails for the elections to be really free and fair,” Kanyetu said.
Kanyetu further denounced claims that the government is broke.
“We have money that is why we are doing a lot of things, like state funerals which cost millions of dollars. If you know that you are really broke, why should you have so many state funerals?” questioned Kanyetu.
The APP secretary general also denounced the arrest of Affirmative Repositioning (AR) activist Dimbulukeni Nauyoma.
He accused the government of having failed to create jobs and low-cost housing for the poor masses and is now intimidating those who want to stand up and speak for the voiceless.
Kanyetu said the party has declared 2019 a year of war and is dedicated to work towards attaining seats in local authorities come 2021.