2005-12-15Staff Report 2 "By Kuvee Kangueehi Windhoek Former Swapo Party politburo member Jesaya Nyamu has written a letter to Secretary General Ngariku-tuke Tjiriange and the entire politburo in the wake of his expulsion from the ruling party last week, to put across his case. In the letter dated December 10, Nyamu said since he was not accorded an opportunity in accordance with the ""principle of fairness and natural justice"" to defend himself and provide comprehensive explanations to his accusers, he felt duty bound to do so even at the last hour. Yesterday morning, Nyamu held a press conference at his residence in Windhoek, where he read a copy of the letter to the media. In the letter, the former Minister of Trade and Industry once again openly acknowledged that he was the author of the notes in question and stated that they were stolen from his office while he was still Minister of Trade and Industry. He claimed that at the time when the notes were stolen, he had never had an opportunity to share their content with any of his friends. He said the fact that the notes became public ""is due entirely to those political spies and their handlers in Swapo"". The former minister said his office was broken into and someone must have opened it using a spare key. ""I first came to know that my notes were made public when someone told me that Paulus Kapia had copies of my notes and if my thoughts of the time had an effect on Swapo as has been alleged, the blame for this lies squarely on those who had the urge to publicise them."" Explaining why he has written the notes, Nyamu wrote in the letter to the Swapo top leadership that the notes were written out of anger emanating from two important events in Swapo last year. The two instances were the Swapo Extra-Ordinary Congress and the Swapo Electoral College meetings. He noted that at the congress, some of them (members) were made to believe that their party of choice was ""sliding into an instrument of suppression of divergent views"". ""The clear standards we had set for ourselves to guide internal electoral process to high offices was grossly violated or ignored altogether."" The expelled member who has been in Swapo for more than 40 years, in the letter added that the spirit of comradeship, which had sustained them through difficult years was killed at the congress. ""Those of us who dared to advance a different candidate of our choice from those who were favoured by the President, were given all sorts of labels."" Nyamu claimed that at the same congress, participants were threatened with prospects of instant civil war if the candidate (Hidipo Hamutenya) who did not enjoy the support of the President won the election. ""The national security forces were brought in, cas-pirs were deployed and only a fool would have taken what went on at the congress lightly."" He declared that he could not sit by idly and watch as his party was tearing itself apart. ""I wanted to help the party by denouncing those who perpetrated undemocratic practices but left the congress with a sense of bitterness as I felt treated like an outright enemy of the party and I have no doubt that many others felt as I did."" Nyamu said that the Swapo Electoral College meeting killed ""any illusion of party unity which might have existed"". A clearly angry Nyamu noted that an entire layer of senior cadres of the party who served the previous government with distinction and loyalty were relegated to the tail of the list. ""No plausible democratic electoral process could provide such results."" Nyamu blamed the outcome of the results on party president Sam Nujoma, whom he claimed provided participants with a piece of paper containing a list of names of candidates to the National Assembly and labelled them agents of imperialism. Nyamu stated that the letter is not an appeal against the decision of the Politburo but a way of declaring himself innocent. He said the charge and claims surrounding his expulsion were part of a conspiracy to purge the party for many of them." 2005-12-15Staff Report 2
