By Mathias Haufiku
WINDHOEK - As expected, Republican Party President Henk Mudge retained his seat as party president to serve another term for five years.
He was re-elected during the party congress that took place over the weekend in Windhoek.
Clara Gowases, who was previously the party’s national chairperson, will deputize him.
Naomi Basson is the party’s new national chairperson and will be deputized by Eric Victorinu.
Tony Nkosi is the new secretary general.
Mweneni Seibeb and Belinda Lombard were elected as secretary general for the youth and women respectively.
Over 280 delegates attended the congress, which was also attended by the party’s founder, Dirk Mudge. The re-elected Mudge told New Era yesterday that the party remained resolute in its earlier decision to support Swapo’s presidential candidate, Dr Hage Geingob, during the upcoming national elections slated for November.
“I want to make it clear that we are not supporting Swapo, but Dr Geingob. If by any chance Geingob is not the candidate, we will have to decide otherwise because we are supporting him as a person and not Swapo,” said Mudge.
Mudge said Namibia is one of the few countries where all the political parties field presidential candidates during elections, adding: “It is unheard of and that is one of the reasons why we decided to bring some sanity into this whole business.”
He added: “What the ruling elite seemingly fail to grasp – or refuse to grasp out of self-interest – is that the Namibian population has reached political maturity. This maturity calls for robust debate.”
Mudge said the RP played a vital role in establishing that the time has come for Namibians to vote for better health care; better education; equitable and above all, sustainable land reform; open and transparent tender processes; skillful and knowledgeable management of resources and sound financial discipline.
“It remains the ruling elite rewarding itself and its cohorts with wealth and pats on the back. It still views its unbridled use of tax monies and other resources as entitlement. It still prefers to appoint incompetent persons to key positions in government and parastatals, not based on merit, but on political affiliation,” said Mudge.
He was also pleased that most of the congress delegates comprised of the youth and women.
“If you look at the list of elected office-bearers, you will see that four of the seven leaders are women. And I can assure you that there was no talk of gender balance or whatsoever during the congress,” said Mudge.
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