Lahja Nashuuta

The Swapo Party Women’s Council (SPWC) has endorsed Vice President Netumbo Nandi-Nditwah as their preferred candidate for the Swapo Party presidency at the extraordinary congress later this month.

The congress is slated for 28 February to 1 March 2025.

SPWC made the decision during the extraordinary virtual council meeting over the weekend.

Swapo has been without a president for over a year now since the demise of late president Hage Geingob.

The council’s secretary, Fransina Kahungu, confirmed the endorsement, and lobbied for the party structures and delegates to support Nandi-Ndaitwah.

Kahungu maintained that the SPWC’s support for Nandi-Ndaitwah is in line with the vision and will of late Founding Father, Sam Nujoma. 

Nujoma died on Saturday night at the age of 95.

“I will forever remember a famous letter or piece of advice given on 9 March 2024 concerning the Swapo Party’s presidential candidate for the 2024 Presidential election… Dr Nujoma’s letter to the Swapo Party central committee meeting, read by Dr Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, humbly requested the meeting to agree for Dr Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah to be made a candidate of the Swapo Party for the Presidential election,” she said.

Kahungu continued: “The power of Tatekulu Nujoma once again prevailed, as no single person objected to such a proposal”.

She hailed Nujoma as a leading stalwart from the darkest days of the anti-apartheid struggle.

“SPWC will remember Tatekulu as a true equaliser, who made sure that both men and women were given equal opportunities to study – a man who respects and values children’s rights,” she remarked.

Kahungu described Nujoma as an African man, who believed in a society multiplied by giving birth to children. 

She has fond memories of the Nujoma era.

“Who will forget an architect of food-for-work? Community members were involved in infrastructure development through food-for-work projects. In that way, Dr Nujoma did not want people to be given food for free, but rather to work first,” she said.

Meanwhile, preparations and campaigns for positions at the congress, which are possibly expected to fill the top two positions, have gone into overdrive.

Congress is allegedly designed to prevent current ministers who might not make it to Parliament from contesting Nandi-Ndaitwah for the presidency of the party.

The reports reveal that the Vice President position will remain vacant, as the party plans to have another extraordinary congress to fill it.

-lnashuuta@gmail.com