Iuze Mukube

In a dramatic turn of events, the Republican Party’s vice president and secretary general have taken their grievances to court, claiming they were unceremoniously expelled from the party’s executive meeting without any misconduct.

This was further escalated as George Smieer and Marcus Serafie were allegedly removed from the nominee list for the National Assembly in 2019, fuelling accusations of foul play within the party.

Smieer, who became a member of the party in 2019 and was elected the party’s secretary general the same year, said he was expelled from the RP’s congress’ executive meeting on 19 December 2020, without any misconduct.

“I don’t know, even up to this date, on what grounds I was expelled. When it came to the National Assembly, we were supposed to be sworn in, but we were not,” he claimed.

Smieer and Serafie have since lodged a court case against the party to address their unfair expulsion and membership termination.

According to the court case, the two were listed as nominees for the 2019 National Assembly swearing-in, where Smieer was fourth and Serafie was second on the list.

This list of nominations/candidates was submitted to the Electoral Commission of Namibia and was published in the Government Gazette.

In the election, the party won two seats in the National Assembly, and the first applicant, Serafie, stated he was invited to the swearing-in ceremony but later received a letter informing him that his name did not appear on the parliamentary list.

Serafie claims that the second respondent, Henk Mudge [RP’s president], unilaterally withdrew his candidature, and in his place, another representative of the party was sworn in.

As such, the two sought relief to be re-listed and sworn in the National Assembly, and for the other party who took their place in the Assembly to be withdrawn and declared unconstitutional and illegal.

Now in 2024, Smieer is complaining that the courts keep on condoning the party’s delaying tactic for various reasons, and that it is unfair on them.

“We have all the documentary proof. When we were at the final stage of hearing and were supposed to file our heads of argument, the other party failed to do so, but to our surprise, the judge still entertained that, and gave them again up to 25 September to file their heads of argument.”

“Why, we don’t know. There were a lot of delays, and again in February this year, on the last day when they were supposed to file their heads of arguments, their legal practitioner fell sick, apparently from food poisoning, and the judge accepted that, and again the case was delayed,” Smieer continued.

He said this is very unfair to them for such a straightforward case, as the Popular Democratic Movement had a similar case with similar situations, and it was resolved, and the wronged parties are now in Parliament.

Smieer believes the reason behind this is that the government is sitting behind and influencing the Swapo leaders and the judges, and “there is no fairness in this case.”

“We are going to start protesting against these judges… We are going to petition them after we check the outcome of the next court session, which is going to happen on 16 October 2024. Hell, fire will rain. We are going to petition them,”  said Smieer.

Serafie added: “Enough is enough. So, this is the time for us to start a political campaign for our problem to be heard. We have many people behind us. We will take action, and the government will also hear our problem. After the next court hearing on 16 October, we will protest if we see that something is unfair.”

Right of reply 

Contacted for comment on the allegations, Mudge said: “The answers to your questions are as follows; the matter is in court. No further comment.”

Mudge then denounced the accusations as baseless, claiming that Smieer was relieved of his duties even before the elections.

“That is not even a story, to be quite honest. I don’t know why anybody even takes notice of that. They have been trying for how long now, and Mr Smieer was relieved of his duties even before the elections, and his membership was cancelled, and he didn’t attend the disciplinary hearing,” he said.

He added that he delisted Serafie for his lack of knowledge of the party, and gave him two years for him to learn something, but still learnt nothing.

Mudge said he believes someone is sponsoring Smieer and Serafie as a smear campaign against his party, because they do not have a chance to win the case.

“This is a smear campaign by our opponents; someone is giving them the money to discredit the party,”  he said. –mukubeiuze@gmail.com