Staff Reporter
Windhoek – A meeting scheduled for yesterday, set up by the ruling party Swapo to get disciplinary measures rolling against Affirmative Repositioning (AR) founders Job Amupanda and George Kambala, as well as former youth league secretary Dr Elijah Ngurare, abruptly ended after the three men raised an avalanche of objections.
The trio, in a statement late yesterday, said they appeared before a committee of the Swapo politburo but questioned its legal standing and why the party’s disciplinary committee – created after the Swapo extraordinary congress in 2013 amended the party constitution at Swakopmund – was not the one tasked with the hearing.
The also wanted to access the reports detailing their transgressions and who the complainants are, their statement said.
They furthermore contested the presence of party spokesperson Helmut Angula and secretary-general Nangolo Mbumba, saying the pair has clear animosity against them.
“We asked for these matters as a precondition for us to enter discussions on the merits. The committee was unable to respond [to] these concerns and indicated that they will go back to the politburo,” reads the statement.
“Because of the legal and procedural clarity we presented and the unanswered questions, the meeting could not proceed to the content and the merits. The parties then agreed to end it there.”
The three men, who were expelled from Swapo in 2015 before the High Court ordered their reinstatement, claimed they are victims of a witch-hunt.
“We are persecuted for nothing but when a rape convict and a corruption convict come from prison they are welcomed at the party headquarters and get rewarded. This is selective morality, which is contrary to the Swapo Party Constitution.”
“We maintain our position that this is nothing but a witch-hunt and attempts to prevent our generation from arriving at the ballot. No one will harass us through unconstitutional methods or otherwise. Our country is ruled by the rule of law and not the rule of men.”
Mbumba, speaking to New Era late yesterday, said he did not wish to comment on the meeting via the media.
“We don’t report through the media. We’ll report back to those who sent us, thank you,” he said.