Rundu
John Mutorwa in his capacity as chairperson of the National Leaders assigned to Kavango East Region has urged Swapo nominees to ensure they work with the outgoing councillors if they want to win next month’s regional and local authority elections on the ruling party ticket.
He also called for humility among the candidates nominated by the ruling Swapo Party, urging them to draw on the wisdom and expertise of outgoing councillors.
Mutorwa who is the Minister of Agriculture, Water and Forestry, officiated at the launch of the Swapo campaign in Rundu on Saturday.
He said that after November 27 the elected councillors should not look down on the colleagues who were there before them but instead consult them about matters when needed.
“They will tell you comrade when we were here, or when we were there, these were the challenges, and they will also tell you what they have achieved up to a certain level,” he said.
“Of course the ordinary people will always complain and accuse others, but we as leaders should consult and work together. You are still comrades, so take forward the developmental agenda of Swapo Party.”
Mutorwa further advised the regional political mobilisers, political campaigners and candidates of Swapo to look at the issues that must be addressed in particular areas when they compile their election programmes.
“Is it the water issue, the road issue that is urgent in the town or constituency? What can Swapo do there? Those are the issues that we must address in our message, obviously on the basis of the manifesto of the party. And when you don’t have an immediate answer just say Swapo is continuing to implement its programmes. If we don’t have something in terms of our plans we will go there, and when we say so we must go back, not lie to people,” Mutorwa said.
He also told the Swapo coordinators and candidates that it has been 25 years down the line and they should never underestimate their competitors.
“No, you should not say we are Swapo and we have already won, that is slogans, it’s called political slogans but as you heard from our president, now 25 years down the line our citizens want bread and butter, real issues; the improvement of our people’s living standards and various needs, so therefore understand your competitors, what is it they want to do and then you counteract,” he said.
“When we leave this hall our focus is to know who are our competitors, the political parties that we are going to contest against on the 27th of November in the six constituencies and the two local authorities that we have. Swapo Party has fielded candidates in all the six districts of Kavango East and the two local authorities,” Mutorwa said.
Mutorwa further encouraged the candidates to know their targets during their campaigns, saying they should know who they will approach to support Swapo candidates.
“It’s very easy; every registered voter in Namibia who will exercise their power on the 27th – we must canvass their support from that registered voter. Now it’s important because sometimes we make mistakes. Obviously the bulk of those registered voters are our members but we should not make a mistake of going to campaign to our members only,” he appealed.
“Yes we must remind our members but it’s not only the members of our party who have got the right to vote for us, even somebody who is a member of another political party, engage those people, tell them Swapo Party is better than the party they belong to in terms of what Swapo will do,” Mutorwa said.