WINDHOEK – Suspended land activists Job Amupanda, Dimbulukeni Nauyoma and George Kambala believe their suspension by the ruling party Swapo is null and void after the party failed to charge them within three months, as is required by Clause 22 of the party’s Code of Conduct.
The three, who were suspended on November 13, 2014, claimed in a letter addressed to the party yesterday that the period within which Swapo was required to bring charges against them lapsed on February 13.
They claim that they were presented with charges on March 6. The letter – addressed to party secretary general Nangolo Mbumba – also questions the legality of an instruction that they must respond to the charges within two days.
This, the activists argued, is contrary to Clause 26 of the party’s Code of Conduct, which requires that a charge should contain or be accompanied by a directive that the charged party member must respond within 30 days from the date of being charged.
“This, comrade secretary general, you did not do, a flagrant violation of the same Code of Conduct in terms of which you purportedly charged us,” they said.
“History will record that it appears your resolve, comrade secretary general, in this respect is that whether or not the correct procedures have been followed we should be disciplined at any and all cost,” they further wrote.
Amupanda, Nauyoma and Kambala were suspended last year after they occupied pieces of residential land in the affluent suburb of Klein Kuppe in a demonstration against high land prices and as reaction to allegations of dodgy land dealings at the City of Windhoek.
They demonstrated under the Affirmative Repositioning campaign, through which thousands of Namibians – mostly the youth – applied for land at different local authorities.
The Swapo politburo endorsed the suspension of the three men at its recent meeting, held over a week ago.
It was after that endorsement that the trio was charged for land grabbing, disturbing peace in the country and embarrassing the ruling party.
In yesterday’s letter to Mbumba, the three suspended members of the Swapo Party Youth League (SPYL) questioned what they termed “inconsistency” in the way the party deals with its members.
They questioned why former Namibian ambassador to Botswana, Hadino Hishongwa, accused of illegally occupying land in Katutura, and deputy minister of trade Tjekero Tweya, who was said to have fenced off large tracts of land in Kavango, were not charged by the party.
“Is it the party’s case that the misconducts alleged against us are only misconduct because they were allegedly committed when elections were to occur in a few days?” they asked, in a letter copied to President Hifikepunye Pohamba and President-elect Hage Geingob, who are president and vice-president of Swapo, respectively.