WINDHOEK – Kalahari Holdings one of the companies owned by Swapo yesterday donated eight 4×4 Toyota vvt-i pickup vehicles with a combined value of N$2.6 million to the ruling party.
The vehicles were handed over by Dr Kalumbi Shangula on behalf of the board, management and staff of Kalahari Holdings.
The vehicles are to be deployed during the forthcoming election campaigns to various areas that are hard to reach.
Among the areas where the new fleet will be dispatched are Kunene North, Kunene East, Omaheke, Oshikoto East, Kavango West, Ohangwena, Omusati Region in the Amarika area and in Tsumkwe in Otjozondjupa Region.
The vehicles will be used for voter education and transportation of voters to polling stations.
The handing-over ceremony was attended by Swapo Party secretary general Nangolo Mbumba, Hamunyera Hambyuka the chief administrator at the Swapo HQ and Jerry Ekandjo, Swapo’s secretary for transport who received the cars.
At the ceremony Shangula said he recognised the process and challenges involved in voters accessing information due to logistical problems, therefore without transport people will not know what’s going on – “that’s why we initiated this idea to provide transport and mitigate the problem before the elections arrive as Namibia is sparsely populated”.
Ekandjo expressed his sincere gratitude on behalf of the party, saying that what Kalahari Holdings did will forever be remembered. He emphasised that the vehicles should be used in a proper manner for their intended purpose and appealed to other businesses to emulate the example set by Kalahari Holdings.
Mbumba touched on the upcoming elections, saying: “We as Swapo are prepared for the elections that’s why we have these cars to be used to mobilise our people – we start from scratch going up, instead of starting when you are approaching elections, that’s how some parties lose because they do their things at the last minute and afterwards they complain that the elections were not fair and so forth.”
He added that in a week’s time Swapo will hold its electoral college to select members to represent the party in the coming elections and a mass rally will follow in early September.