WINDHOEK-The Swapo Party Youth League (SPYL) has downplayed talk there is factionalism within its ranks with its spokesperson Job Amupanda stating that “factionalism was there but we have dealt with it.”
The youth wing has over the years been rocked by ‘factionalism’, something which strained relationships within the structure, especially after the ruling party’s Fifth Ordinary Congress in 2012, where SPYL members supporting the three Swapo presidential candidates, namely Jerry Ekandjo, Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana and Dr Hage Geingob, adopted fierce campaign tactics to lobby for their preferred candidate in the election where Geingob eventually emerged victorious.
“CC notes with regret the current state of affairs of factionalism and organisational paralysis. CC analysis is that factionalism has both internal and external dynamics. CC, therefore, stood firm and opposed to factionalism and made attempts to quarantine such through frank discussions between and amongst members to resolve real and perceived factional tendencies and organisational paralysis,” stated Amupanda during yesterday’s press conference that was specially convened to brief the media on the outcomes of the third Central Committee meeting that was held over the weekend.
According to Amupanda: “We have come of age and demonstrated that we have dealt with this issue of factionalism, therefore we are sending out a message of unity and peace and that we have moved a step further in order to do things differently. This is evident in the dynamic election of the six candidates who are going to the electoral college.”
“It will be naive of us to deny that factionalism never existed. But we have dealt with it and we are dealing with it better than others,” acknowledged Amupanda.
“As you know there are some things that are problematic to us as the youth in the party such as the number of spaces allocated to the SPYL with regards to those members who can go into the pot. SPYL’s quota for the electoral college is six candidates,” he said.
“Some requirements are problematic to us, most of the SPYL members are unemployed and thus have no money to pay their annual membership fees. But we are engaging the mother body, of course we wish things could have been done differently. If there is anything that blocks the empowerment of youth there will be problems but as I said we are busy engaging the secretary general and the party leadership,” he said.
“It would have been nice to have at least 20 or 30 youth in the pot because we constitute 70 percent of the Swapo membership,” Amupanda said. According to Amupanda, delegates at the weekend’s CC meeting also discussed the party’s ideology, which it hopes to engage the party leadership on.
He said the engagement with the leadership is meant “towards redirecting the party away from a neo-liberal path back to scientific socialism.”
“Whereas our history and document speaks of scientific socialism, it has been noted that the country has been following a neo-liberal path. The ideological zigzag and irresolute has led to serious consequences which if left unattended can result in serious consequences,” he said. Delegates are also of the view that the 50/50 principle be implemented at the level of government branches in general and cabinet in particular.
The youth wing over the weekend also raised concern about the “current and industrialisation path and economic policy in which the country is sinking into, under Minister of Trade and Industry, Honourable Calle Schlettwein”.
“The semi-philosophy of ‘Growth at Home’ is a misdiagnosis of economic problems and proposes wrong solutions. The problem which Hon Schlettwein fails to comprehend, is that the growth has been a jobless one,” Amupanda said.
The CC last weekend elected Sydney Ganeb, Paula Kooper, Lucia Iipumbu, Muesee Kazapua, Josua Matati and Heather Sibungo as candidates for the upcoming electoral college, which will elect those making up the party list for the National Assembly, slated for November.