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Home / Newly-elected CC members to be sworn in Saturday
Newly-elected CC members to be sworn in Saturday
2017-12-01Staff Report 2 Albertina Nakale Windhoek-The Swapo Party will hold its first Central Committee meeting after the just-concluded sixth Swapo elective congress, to officially affirm the newly-elected members. The newly-elected Swapo secretary general (SG) Sophia Shaningwa yesterday revealed that all the 83 newly elected Central Committee members, chosen at the congress which saw President Hage Geingob and his slate emerge victorious, would be sworn in on Saturday in Windhoek. “For those who were elected – we will have a first meeting this Saturday at 09h00 here at Parliament Building. We want to see that you are sworn in and will also get our members of the Politburo of our party,” Shaningwa noted. She made the remarks at the launch of the book Leadership at the Helm, which covers the journey of Swapo chief whips in the National Council since 1993 to date. At the same event, former Swapo SG Nangolo Mbumba said he handed over the office keys to Shaningwa on Wednesday. “Today is my first day without any office and any appointment,” he said. He jokingly added: “My time is now very precious. You have to pay for it if you want it. I have time to have my eyes checked, my teeth cleaned. I have changed my dress code. I don’t have to impress anybody anymore. I don’t have to sit a long time for things.” New Era enquired from Shaningwa whether she had tendered her resignation since the SG is a full-time position, but she only responded: “Call me around the 15th of December. I will have an answer for you.” The ruling Swapo elected the Head of State Hage Geingob as its president a week ago during the Swapo congress. Geingob, president of Namibia since 2015, won 574 out of 766 votes at the elective congress. Geingob won the Swapo presidential position with 574 votes out of 768 votes, youth and sport minister Jerry Ekandjo came in second place with 153 votes, while former prime minister Nahas Angula only managed 39 votes. Geingob’s preferred candidates for the three top positions also emerged victorious at the congress. These are Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah for vice-president, Shaningwa for Swapo SG and Marco Hausiku for Swapo deputy SG. Nandi-Ndaitwah got a resounding 552 of the 766 votes cast, defeating Home Affairs and Immigration Minister Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana, who managed to get 194 votes, while Helmut Angula, only received 20 votes. Shaningwa defeated Oshikoto Swapo regional coordinator Armas Amukwiyu for the SG position. Shaningwa got 523 votes, while Amukwiyu received 243 votes. Geingob must still name his six nominees to the Central Committee. Shaningwa said congress is now done and dusted – hence she urged all Swapo members especially those in parliament to work hard. “We have to be accountable to our electorate. We have to be accountable to the rank and file of Swapo Party. As the house of review, we should not sit idle. The moment the Bills come from the National Assembly, we have to act so that at least we put laws into place to give services to our people. I trust in your leadership and trust that we will all pull together to give services to our people.” Shaningwa warned against ministries returning funds to Treasury – funds under-utilised while they were budgeted. “Let’s not have budgets but at the end of the day it’s returned to Treasury. If fiscal is possible and was provided as appropriated, let all the fiscals be utilized for the benefit of our people,” she urged. The newly-elected SG also urged that Namibians do away with the tendency of quoting American authors. Se said it’s time people started quoting Namibian authors. 2017-12-01Staff Report 2
