Nuusita Ashipala
Eenhana-Deputy Prime Minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah yesterday said that the Swapo Party was not for sale and that any buying of votes would be in violation of the party constitution and a form of punishable misconduct. She therefore cautioned party members against accepting or offering bribes.
“If somebody is offering you something to vote for them, you are selling your party and this party is not on sale.
“That [bribe] is a once-off thing you get and by the time you get to the congress it is finished. But you would have sold your party and it is going to haunt you for the rest of your life,” she warned.
Nandi-Ndaitwah is contesting for the position of Swapo vice-president at the congress slated for later this month.
She was speaking at a special regional executive committee meeting at Eenhana yesterday, attended by delegates from Ohangwena Region, who duly endorsed President Hage Geingob as their preferred candidate for the position of Swapo president.
Nandi-Ndaitwah, who also serves as the country’s minister of international relations and cooperation, pleaded with delegates from Ohangwena to ensure that they give acting party president Geingob an opportunity to lead the party and the country, as was the practise with his predecessors.
She said all talk that the party can be led by a different candidate than the country’s president, was utterly misleading, as the party’s president automatically becomes the presidential candidate for the next national presidential election. Namibia will hold parliamentary and presidential elections in 2019.
She further dismissed talk of an alleged generational gap in the party leadership. She said such sentiments were misleading and an insult to the intelligence of rank-and-file party members.
She pointed out that parliament includes young people and that only three members have been in the National Assembly since day one.
“But still you have people talking that there is no generational transition. How misleading. This is an insult to our people’s intelligence, because we know it is not true, things are changing,” she said.
Nandi-Ndaitwah, who alongside Urban and Rural Development Minister Sophia Shaningwa and former deputy prime minister Marco Hausiku are on President Geingob’s congress slate, said delegates should vote for the president’s preferred candidates, as they have experience in leadership, which she said amounts to more than 100 years collectively.
The meeting was attended by Environment and Tourism Minister Pohamba Shifeta, Education Minister Katrina Hanse-Himarwa, Deputy Minister of Gender Equality Lucia Witbooi, as well as a number of congress delegates and the Ohangwena Regional Council leadership, including Governor Usko Nghaamwa and Omuntele Constituency Councillor Sacky Nangula from Oshikoto Region.
Swapo Party Youth League secretary Ephraim Nekongo was also present.