Recently, New Era editor Edward Mumbuu (EM) sat down with Swanu presidential candidate Evilastus Kaaronda (EK) on NBC’s talk show, One-on-One, to gauge his vision for Namibia’s oldest political formation ahead of 27 November, when Namibian voters separate pretenders from contenders through the ballot.
Here is the abridged version of the discussion:
ED: Talk to us about transitioning from a firebrand unionist into politics to now gunning for the highest office in the land.
EK: It has been tumultuous, to say the least, but also exciting at the same time. It is something that I felt needed to happen, because a lot of the fights that we had within the unions, especially the workplace for the workers, were always blocked by the fact that the legislative framework that we have in the country did not support some of the fights that we undertook. For example, when the fishermen’s strike took place, the Labour Act did not make provision for overtime work at sea. Now, the Act would tell you that, every day that you work, if there’s any overtime, it should not exceed three hours a day. The fishermen would work for more than 19 hours a day, way more than the three hours of overtime a day. There was also no protection and no compensation for that, and that is what gave rise to that industrial action. That is why a lot of these fishermen were expelled. It’s only in 2018. However the ILO convention that deals with work at sea was ratified way after the strike. So that then means that if you fight this thing at the workplace level, you will also need people to fight for it within the legislative chambers or the law-making chambers.
EM: How does the Swanu manifesto speak, specifically to these issues?
EK: It speaks to the workers’ issues. Fishermen, for instance, is just an issue that pertains to a specific industry, but it generally speaks about, for instance, the conditions that our people are employed under. And I think during our launching also, we made reference to some of those issues, whether it’s labour hire, for instance, where workers are employed through third parties, and these companies take a huge chunk of workers’ salaries and workers end up with the little portion of it. We feel that wealth redistribution through that has more tangible meaning and effect than just the loose statements that we hear that resources belong to Namibians. But there’s nothing that tangibly reflects that.
EM: Talk to us about the division within Swanu.
EK: Swanu is a law-abiding political party, and it has law-abiding leadership. This thing started in 2021, when the group led by the late Rihupisa Kandando, together with Charles Katjivirue and others, decided to call their wives, their spouses and friends at a place called Shiriloch in Epukiro and unlawfully removed president Tangeni Iijambo from office, including his leadership. After that, in August of the same year, Katjivirue was then elected at an extraordinary congress, facilitated by Dr. Kandando, to become the so-called party president. That’s when we went to court to challenge what they did. Fortunately, on 17 June this year, through a mutual agreement, which became a court order, it was found and ruled, or ordered, that the meeting that subsequently led to the extraordinary congress at which Katjivirue was elected was illegal, unconstitutional, and therefore of no effect. So, the leadership of Katjivirue and others was then declared null and void. Now, we thought and expected that they would respect the ruling of the order. Unfortunately, they did not. And what they did, as you said now, while we’re launching our manifesto, is no different from what they did in 2021. It will have the same effect, and that’s why it has not really bothered us.
ED: In what state is Swanu ahead of the elections?
EK: Swanu is in a very healthy state. These things that we see happen also, of course, are happening everywhere else in other political parties. And where you see growth, where you see light, where you see potential, you would be bound to see a lot of these robust activities taking place. But where these activities infringe on the personality or the legal personality of the party, of course, we take exception and we deal with those matters.
EM: Why is it so difficult for you to sit around the table and iron out all these issues?
EK: The issues are too, in my view, perhaps deep-seated. I see the problem as having two streams, only one extreme. You have a problem of entitlement. I think comrades who have been with Swanu for all these years, for some reason, feel that it’s their toy and that they are entitled to it. They should do it as they please. And therefore, they don’t have to follow any of the Swanu constitutional provisions or rules. The other problem is one of nostalgia. where they feel that if they let go, they would lose their own personal history, which is attached or somewhat connected to that of Swanu, and therefore feel that there are some places that they should still hold on to. But Swanu is not a project of people’s entitlement or nostalgia. It is a party political formation. And it has its own life. So, regardless of what differences we have, if comrades would come out and show that they respect Swanu as an entity on its own, which all of us have a responsibility to protect, then it’s fine; we have a common agenda.
EM: Swanu is the oldest political party in Namibia. In your diagnosis, where did Swanu go wrong?
EK: Well, I think some of the diagnostics are right there. You just pointed out one of them. Youth involvement has been an issue that the party struggled with for quite a while. But we have rolled that back. We have within our leadership now many young people.
EM: What is the current state of workers’ unions in Namibia?
EK: I don’t think there’s much happening. I mean, during my time, even when we had maintained a very rough relationship with the ruling party, with Swapo, there was that respect. And our candidates into the pot often would make it through, you know, and they would be elected. Some of them became ministers. Others became deputy ministers. Others just became, you know, parliamentarians. But you can see now the evidence that even within Swapo itself, the labour movement is not respected.
EM: Why should voters even consider voting for Swanu?
EK: We have a very pronounced, very clearly articulated programme. I think I referred to some of its aspects earlier on. And one is, we believe in the economic freedom of our people. We believe that our people must and deserve a chance to gain full employment. We don’t believe in handling like the government does. We believe that one of the key problems that I think key mistakes that were made if one is to take, for instance, the municipalities, is the whole idea of privatisation or outsourcing of work. You know, if you look at garbage collection, for instance, in the city of Windhoek, it’s a project that has been given out to some people who were closely associated, you know, with senior managers within the City of Windhoek and were out to employ certain individuals to do the actual work. We believe in permanent employment. I think all those employees who are employed through these outsourced, you know, outfits must be employed and can be employed directly and permanently by the City of Windhoek. We have also very much spoken against privatisation, whether in its prelude or commercialisation, where we’ve seen a lot of State functions given out to semi-privatised entities, which I think all of them have successfully failed to deliver. Whether it’s TransNamib, whether it’s NamPower, whether it’s Namcor, all these entities have clearly failed. We feel that in a Swanu-led government, all these functions must be brought back into the State or government for people to be given gainful permanent employment. We also believe that resources must be equitably distributed, and must reflect the entire demography of our country. You can’t come from the south in //Kharas, for instance, where diamonds are mined and look like you come from a muddy, pre-capitalist society somewhere. And you live in Hindustan, which has all these tall, glittering buildings financed by the very same diamonds that come from the south. But there’s nothing going on in the south. We don’t believe in that. So we believe in inclusion. And that’s why I feel people should consider voting for Swanu. And I also believe workers deserve a fair share. Workers must, by law, be allowed to own shares in the companies for which they work as a way of redistributing wealth to the greater majority of our people. Otherwise, wealth will be concentrated in a few hands.
ED: How does your recently-launched manifesto speak to ordinary Namibians?
EK: Let’s speak on a few issues. One first is that it’s now about 120 years since the Germans slaughtered our people since the Germans took our land. And fortunately, I was part of those who went to receive people from Botswana who were repatriated. We feel that there’s a need for restorative justice in that area.
EM: Some people argue that opposition political parties are too fragmented. Your take?
EK: That is correct. We are too fragmented. But it’s also because of many factors that are there. You cannot just simply forge some cooperation among political parties overnight. But I think there are issues that we have been seeing, eye to eye. And on those issues, we will freely cooperate. But on other issues that we may not, we will not. I mean, I’m sure there are people who would oppose our stance on gay rights, for instance. You can’t cooperate with everyone on those issues. But I’m sure most Namibians would not differ with Jerry Ekandjo or me on this issue.