Windhoek
Former cabinet minister Helmut Angula has rubbished media reports suggesting he was out to challenge President Hage Geingob for the Swapo president’s position which, if elected to, would make him the ruling party’s candidate in the 2019 presidential elections.
The Namibian reported last week that Angula and former prime minister Nahas Angula were harbouring ambitions for the country’s highest office and were plotting to challenge Geingob at the party’s elective congress next year.
Last week’s last-minute cancellation of the Talk of the Nation show on national broadcaster NBC, on which Nahas Angula was to appear as a guest in an education-related discussion, was cited as part of attempts to ensure the former education minister gets no platform to market himself for the congress.
NBC director general Stanley Similo dismissed speculation that the show was cancelled at the behest of State House. He was quoted as saying the panel of guests was imbalanced, hence the decision to suspend the show.
Although two dailies reported on the cancellation of the NBC show, it was The Namibian which Helmut Angula singled out as having the agenda against him and his party.
He was particularly irked by the fact that he was allegedly not afforded the opportunity to respond to allegations that he was billed to challenge the president next year.
He said as Swapo’s secretary for information and mobilisation, it was he and his team who worked tirelessly to deliver Geingob as Namibian president after vigorous mobilisation and marketing.
The former director-general of the National Planning Commission, in a statement issued late yesterday, did not say that he would not stand for the party president’s position – but insinuated he would not.
“I consider this [report] as an affront to my person and an abuse of the right to free speech by the newspaper,” he said.
“I am a Swapo Party official, responsible for information and mobilisation. My team and I worked very hard to coordinate and sell the Swapo Party agenda to the masses.”
He said he would support whoever emerges as president of the party from the congress – emphasising that he has no interest in working for individuals but for the party.
“When the party congress elects whoever to be president, as a loyal Swapo member I am bound to support that individual,” he said.
Geingob is currently at the helm of the party after he was ushered into the position last year – after the resignation of former president Hifikepunye Pohamba from the Swapo presidency.
There are currently calls for the party’s central committee to endorse Geingob as sole candidate for the position of president – which would mean no other candidates would be accepted to challenge for that position.