Team Swapo should not point fingers – Uutoni

Nuusita Ashipala Ongwediva-Leaders of Team Swapo, who hold ministerial positions in government and senior positions in the Swapo Party, yet claim that the government is broke and that Swapo has failed, make a mockery of the positions they hold. “For a minister to say the government is weak and that Swapo is weak, and [yet] you are a member of the central committee and politburo, something is wrong,” President Hage Geingob said at a campaign rally on Thursday. Speaking at the same occasion, Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Erastus Uutoni concurred with the president and said individuals in key decision-making structures have only themselves to blame for any alleged bad decisions taken. “Some of us are members of the central committee and the politburo. If things are not going well, it is all of us. If the government is wrong, then we should correct it and not be pointing fingers,” Uutoni said. The rally was attended by 181 delegates from 13 regions, including members of the youth league, the women’s council and the elder’s council. Geingob also voiced concern over tribalist overtones and name-calling ahead of the upcoming congress scheduled for this weekend. He called on all delegates to hold hands and forge ahead in unity. “We condemn tribalism. You cannot be a revolutionary and be the biggest tribalist,” he said. Geingob also appealed to the delegates to vote for him and his slate of candidates. He said voting for him for president of the party and rejecting another member on his slate would defeat the purpose of putting a coherent leadership in place. A fired-up Sophia Shaningwa criticised those who ahead of the rally circulated a subversive text message calling on people to boycott the meeting. She called on delegates supporting Team Swapo to convert to Team Harambee if they had not done so yet and to vote instead for good governance, unity, solidarity and fairness. Shanigwa also urged delegates to the congress to accord Geingob an opportunity to follow in the footsteps of his predecessors to lead both the party and the government. “Why do you want to change it now? What is your problem? There should be no shortcut,” she said. Former deputy prime minister Marco Hausiku, who is contesting for the post of deputy secretary general of the Swapo Party, said some party members did not seem to comprehend the definition of the all-important slogan: ‘One Namibia, One Nation’. He said the propaganda around the promotion of two centres of power was misleading and amounted to a denial of the reality of the situation and – even worse – to downright discrimination against some party members.
2017-11-20 09:16:28 9 months ago