The Affirmative Repositioning movement is appealing to the public for financial contributions to bankroll its campaign as leader Job Amupanda makes his first attempt at State House.
“You don’t have to be rich to contribute. Even N$100 will go a long way,” he pleaded as he set ambitious targets to join the presidential race in November.
He said the movement does not receive any money from defined institutional or well-established sources, “unlike existing political parties that receive funds from Parliament, the Chinese, London or through corruption”.
“We are funding our campaign through our little pockets and through Samaritans, whose hearts and minds have been touched by God,” he said.
“We call on all Namibians, supporters of multi-party and multichoice democracy, those who wish to see corruption fought and ended, who aspire for a leadership of the future and not the past,” he said during the press conference yesterday.
Last year, Amupanda announced his presidential ambitions through billboards countrywide. The costly exercise made the nation wonder who was bankrolling the movement.
At the time, industry experts said the production cost of a billboard banner was around N$16 000.
Once the banner is mounted, it costs between N$9 000 and N$15 000 per month.
If these calculations are used for his case, it would cost the activist or AR around N$65 000 to keep his face mounted for an average of three months.
In an interview with New Era last year, the politician said they were deploying various unorthodox strategies to fund their campaigns.
Speaking to New Era, the movement’s spokesperson George Kambala could not immediately say how much they would need to pull off a successful campaign.
Workshop
The movement has also announced the host of the election workshop, set to take place this weekend on Saturday and Sunday in Windhoek.
“The workshop will receive presentations from various institutions of democracy and electoral governance during the open session, and thereafter retreat to a closed session to resolve important questions on organisational election strategies and tactics,” said Amupanda.
State resources
He also took aim at the ruling party, accusing Swapo-bound government officials of “criss-crossing the country to launch and open this and that, accumulating S&T, and addressing Swapo meetings on weekends”. Amupanda sees this as an opportunity to loot state resources.
“We thus call on all Namibians to see the launch of this and that, groundbreaking of this and that, and the opening of this and that, as theatrics aimed at accumulating S&T while simultaneously campaigning for the corrupt party responsible for hunger, corruption, poverty, unemployment and the general despondency of our people,” he critiqued.
“By 27 November 2024, the government S&T budget will have been depleted, if not already depleted. Ministers who have been in office for four years are apparently on ‘familiarisation’ visits,” he said.
In the same vein, while addressing a range of other issues, AR has shown interest in participating in the second 2024 presidential debate.
“We view this debate as an opportunity to highlight the hopes, fears, aspirations and plans we have for our country and its people, but also as a chance to separate lions from springboks,” he said. In the last presidential debates, only five political leaders participated.