OKAKARARA – Swapo’s Otjozondjupa regional coordinator Imms Namaseb has warned opposition parties not to get carried away by recent elect ion outcomes in South Africa and Botswana, where both the African National Congress (ANC) and the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) got ousted from power.
In South Africa, the ANC lost its parliamentary majority for the first time in 30 years during a historic election outcome in June, and was resultantly forced to form a government of national unity. In Botswana, the BDP’s 58-year rule came to an end earlier this month when it lost to the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) in that country’s national elections.
With winds of change blowing across southern Africa, opposition parties in Namibia are hoping to benefit from the shifting political tides in the region, and are banking on Namibians to eject the ruling Swapo Party from power, come Wednesday, 27 November.
But Namaseb is of a different opinion, saying Namibians and opposition parties alike should not be fooled by the political climate in those neighbouring countries.
Namibian politics and its social set-up is a whole different kettle of fish and must not be compared with neighbouring countries, Namaseb said at the party’s star rally at Okakarara on Saturday.
“We are now hearing them saying that Swapo will suffer the same fate as the ANC and BDP. But I must caution our comrades from the opposition parties that they will be deeply disappointed. It is a big mistake to compare Swapo with what happened in those countries. Swapo should never be threatened because once you threaten the existence of Swapo, it will return to its roots and become a beast, as it did at independence. We are going to win these coming elections, and continue with our mandate of bettering the lives of all Namibians. The opposition should stop daydreaming because that will not happen,” said Namaseb, one of the party’s stalwarts in the Otjozondjupa region.
In the South African elections, the once-dominant ANC received nearly 40% of the votes, and fell short of securing the majority rule it had held since the famed all-race vote of 1994 which ended apartheid and brought it to power under Nelson Mandela.
Meanwh i l e , the Botswana elections saw the end of single-party governance by the centre-right BDP, which had led the country since independence in 1966.
The BDP was reduced to a rump of four seats, suffering one of the worst defeats of a sitting government in the Commonwealth.
Come election day tomorrow, Namaseb feels Swapo will put all and sundry to shame by marching to a sweeping victory against what he termed ‘opposition parties which lack a foundation and governing history’.
-ohembapu@nepc.com.na