2018-07-04Staff Report 2 Nuusita Ashipala ONGWEDIVA –- Ahead of the presidential and national elections slated for next year community activist and Swapo rebel Kennedy Iilonga plans to register his own party named Namibian Empowerment with the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN). Iilonga said registration of membership is already in progress and he is optimistic to meet the required number of voters as set by the ECN for the registration of a political party. He says he has to date registered over 1,200 members. Announcement of the launch of the party will be made soon. Iilonga who has been a Swapo member said he is frustrated by the “system” and plans to change the status quo. ‘Namibian Empowerment’s core mandate will be to fight corruption, landlessness and to empower the nation economically. “We want to contest Swapo, because we know that there are Swapo members whose hearts are not Swapo and are just using the party to benefit themselves,” Iilonga said. Confident of scoring seats in the National Assembly come next year, Iilonga said his party will thrive to ensure equality and the fair distribution of the country’s wealth. Also on the agenda of Namibian Empowerment is to ensure that ordinary pensioners earn half the pension that formerly employed pensioners earn from their accrued pensions at GIPF. “We want to do away with tertiary education fees, we also want our pensioners to earn more, because what they receive now is not sufficient,” Iilonga said. This year, another party Socio-Economic Liberation of the Masses (Selma) was expected to have launched on Namibian Independence Day this year, but the planned launch did not materialise. The founder Theofelus Mwoongela in an interview with New Era earlier this year related that his party plans to hold the government accountable for the post-colonial economic system failures. By February Mwoongela had signed up 3,000 members. 2018-07-04Staff Report 2
