As the political landscape heats up as parties’ election campaigns go into overdrive ahead of the national polls this year, the Affirmative Repositioning (AR) movement has emerged from a period of hibernation, signalling its readiness to contest.
Speaking at his first public address recently, AR leader Job Amupanda said their decision to handle their affairs in secrecy, including gathering signatures for their registration with the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN), was prompted by opposition attempts to sabotage the party.
With the AR’s resurgence, the stage is set for a high-stakes showdown, promising electrifying campaigns and intense rivalries. Describing his rivals as “antagonistic forces”, Amupanda said they tried “terminating the pregnancy before it was born”.
Upon announcing his candidature for presidency, he said, “They [rivals] collectively read our plans, and how we were going to actualise what we were promising and getting to the people of Namibia.”
While he had anticipated his rivals, Amupanda said he had underestimated the extent to which they would go to sabotage the birth of his party, only to realise they had reached miles of dissuading society from following their messages, and weaponised their employers to make their lives difficult.
“We realised that the forces were funding through propaganda and access to the media, and we realised that we were dealing with a completely different element altogether,” he said.
After such realisation, the movement then sat and took a tough decision to let their enemies have what he called “five minutes of fame”.
“We let them do whatever it is they thought they would do, for them to get their attention to the media so that they can prove their value for money to those whoever it is that sent them to create some sort of confusion, and to create an illusion of a movement that is falling. Of an organisation that is not cohesive, of a leader that is apparently selfish, of a leader that only thinks of himself,” he stated.
Intelligence
Through the AR intelligence, Amupanda said they were informed that the rivals wanted the movement to be busy responding to “nonsensical” things they were saying, and not focus on the programme of action. This ultimately led the party to put all its programmes underground.
“Because of the transition we were facing, we could no longer have our programmes in the open to ensure that we were not sabotaged,” he added, noting that their enemies had the benefit of their internal activities.
In past years, Amupanda was at loggerheads with one axed movement spokesperson, Simon Amunime, who, after being axed, went on a kiss-and-tell spree to air the movement’s internal affairs. This relationship is still said to be sour.
Without mentioning any names, Amupanda said, “Some of these people, we literally brought them up. We found them in Nanso and in some other insignificant things. We brought them here, and when you are developing somebody, you really want to take them through everything, and make it a deliberate point to disclose for them to experiment, and all sorts of things.”
Not risking being exposed, he said they had to change their strategy of operations.
“Our underground programme also exposed who really believes in the movement, who is in for rotational grazing, and who sympathises with those that want to distract our movement. We eventually defeated the antagonistic forces, despite their attempts to sabotage us,” he said.
Signatures
The AR’s discreet mission included the movement silently collecting its signature to enable its registration with the ECN.
“We did it underground; we wanted to talk to people, toe to toe, eyeball to eyeball, mouth to mouth, so that people could understand what the AR movement is all about,” he said.
He added that the signature collection began in June last year, and they have complied with ECN requirements.
This is despite recent media reports that allege that the movement has stolen signatures.
Last month, The Namibian reported that Zambezi region residents accused the movement of using their signatures to push for its registration as a political party at the ECN of Namibia without their consent.
The movement vehemently denied the claims, blaming them on propaganda from other parties.