Andreas Thomas 

Landless People’s Movement leader Bernardus Swartbooi has expressed concern about the possibility of there being no official opposition leader in Parliament. 

Speaking at the opening of his party’s national convention on Saturday, he remarked that the next five years would be challenging if the title is not assigned in the National Assembly. 

“But the bottomline is, if a leader of the official opposition is not assigned by the party that has the responsibility, it would be a very interesting time,” he said in his opening statement. 

Swartbooi was responding to Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) leader Panduleni Itula, who said on Thursday that his party would not accept the position of leader of the official opposition in the National Assembly. 

Itula, whose party holds 20 seats in Parliament, second only to the ruling Swapo Party, stated that the office is not provided for in the Namibian Constitution. 

Swartbooi appeared to disagree with Itula’s assessment. 

“Because whether or not you agree with some provisions or not, you’ve got to play the politics as you see it, and not as you imagine it. 

“And some of our colleagues do not have, perhaps, the willingness to interpret and see politics as it is, and work for politics eventually along the process as it ought to be.” 

Addressing nearly 50 national leaders of the LPM, Swartbooi challenged opposition political parties to collaborate for the common good of the citizens. 

“So, we may have a period of five years without any leader of the official opposition, and it is our hope and our call that opposition political parties remain united. 

I hope that we can forcefully articulate the interests of our people for the next five years,” he said. 

He further called on opposition parties to collaborate in the regional council and local authority elections later this year. 

“The challenge is, will the opposition be the small boys and small girls that will be driven by our egos and by our titles? Or will it be the big boys and the big girls that will say, let’s work together, and perhaps in the next election field one candidate for presidency, or maybe two at best, but move far, far away from further fragmentation,” Swartbooi argued. -Nampa