The Affirmative Repositioning (AR) movement has fired its spokesperson Simon Amunime and head of elections Paulus Kathanga for dragging the movement’s name in the mud and sowing seeds of division within its rank and file.
Both Kathanga and Amunime confirmed their expulsions.
The decision was taken by AR’s Interim National Activists Council (INAC) – its highest decision-making body – in Swakopmund on Saturday.
INAC made it clear that personal interests will never supersede those of the collective.
The two activists were booted “for sowing divisions in the movement, and bringing the name of the movement into disrepute. The two activists thus no longer form part of the leadership of the movement, nor do they represent the movement in any capacity,” reads a statement issued yesterday.
One of AR’s founders, George Kambala, will fill the void left by Amunime, while legal head Stanley Kavetu will occupy Kathanga’s position.
Things came down crumpling for the eight-year-old formation a fortnight ago when Amunime and Kathanga penned a damning statement in which they accused AR’s chief activist Job Amupanda of corruption and taking bribes under the guise of the movement.
They demanded that AR’s two representatives in the City of Windhoek council – Amupanda and Ilse Keister – be rotated to allow activists who are unemployed and “blacklisted by the regime” to make a living.
“What is the harm of allowing other activists to take up the seats at City of Windhoek, and allow them to prove their leadership and allow them to make a
living with that N$30 000?” they asked.
“INAC encourages all activists in the movement not to tolerate corruption and to report corruption, no matter whom it involves. We have taken note that the two activists are peddling lies in public, which
is in tandem with the reasons why they were relieved of their responsibilities,” Kambala said in the statement.
More so, AR recently adopted the Reorganisation, Institutionalisation and Formalisation (RIF) programme.
“Practically, we recently adopted the pre-constitution interim governance guidelines, which serve as the direction towards a constitutional order within the Affirmative Repositioning movement,” Kambala continued.
The said guidelines are anticipated to remain in force until the adoption of the AR constitution in November 2022, and will cease to exist as soon as the national activists’ assembly convenes
to elect the leadership of the movement.
The assembly will be attended by 650 delegates from across Namibia, and will be held in Otavi.
“The head of legal has been tasked to finalise and table the Code of Conduct and Revolutionary Discipline at the next INAC meeting for adoption, as per section 5.3 of the interim governance guidelines,” the statement added.
AR promised to deploy a new communications strategy, guided by professionalism and transparency, to reinforce its role, as well as a “front door” strategic approach. “These details will be thrashed out in the communications policy to be tabled at the next INAC meeting to provide timely and factual information to dispel public speculations,” Kambala said. – emumbuu@nepc.com.na