WINDHOEK – Republican Party (RP) president Henk Mudge says some opposition leaders are selfish, making it difficult to form a viable coalition alternative ahead of the general elections.
“Opposition leaders are more worried about their own positions than to act in the interest of the people of Namibia,” Mudge said while officiating at the opening of RP congress held in Windhoek on Friday.
He said in March 2016, RP invited all the opposition parties’ leaders to a meeting where RP proposed they consider forming a coalition.
Initially, he said he was very excited because it seemed that all of the opposition leaders at the said meeting understood the necessity for this to happen.
“We had two or three more meetings, but then some parties failed to attend without giving any reasons and later I heard via the grapevine that I was not the right person to drive this initiative,” he said.
“Needless to say, nothing came of it and the reason being that the leaders were starting to realise that with such an alliance or coalition, there will only be one president, one vice-president, one chairperson and then they obviously decided to get out. One party even demanded for their leader to be in charge of this coalition and I guess you know which party that was,” he said.
Furthermore, Mudge also took a swipe at the ruling party Swapo.
“It is nothing but shocking to see how the Swapo elites and their Chinese partners have looted the resources of our country to the stage where we are basically bankrupt and all that because of greed,” he said.
He also questioned Swapo’s seriousness on tackling corruption.
“I got to the stage where I almost stopped reading the newspapers, because I just did not want to read about corruption, mismanagement, raping of innocent women and especially children and the murdering of women and girlfriends. I think I can safely say that all hell is loose in Namibia,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mudge said RP will initiate a court case against the Swapo-led government next year for refusing to acknowledge former SWATF and Koevoet soldiers as war veterans.
“We will seek the support of all human rights organisations around the world to support us, because this Swapo government is not only acting in contravention with the constitution but they are also making a farce of their own so-called policy of national reconciliation,” he said.