KASIKA – The Deputy Minister of Justice, Tommy Nambahu, says the Swapo Party has sided with people at all times unlike the opposition that only appears during elections.
Nambahu was speaking to Swapo members and supporters at Kasika, one of the remote floodplain areas sharing a frontier with neighbouring Botswana. Kasika is located over 90 km east of Katima Mulilo in the Zambezi Region.
He likened opposition parties to a millipede that only appears during the rainy season but to disappear when the season is over.
“Not a single political party has visited you here before apart from Swapo. Some parties only come to you during elections. Swapo is always with you. In my culture, when you see a millipede, you know that rain is around the corner. It’s the same with the opposition, when they come to you, you know that its election time,” noted Nambahu.
According to Nambahu the Swapo Party represents the true aspirations of the people as was attested by its determination during Namibia’s struggle for independence.
“We ask you to place your trust in a party that has been with you even during difficult times. When you were in Cassinga, when Casspirs were destroying your fields, when you were buried alive, Swapo was there for you,” he said.
He further scorned the opposition saying they lack the tenacity to confront problems, citing the leader of the All People’s Party (APP), Ignatius Shixwameni, as “an example”.
“In Swapo we confront our problems; we don’t run away from them. Other people like Ignatius Shixwameni ran away from Swapo because they said there were problems. He joined CoD and again ran away to form APP for the same reason. How many times is he going to run away? That’s what they always do. That’s what makes these parties different from Swapo,” stressed Nambahu.
Nambahu expressed his gratitude to struggle heroes he says shaped a lot of people during the time of liberation.
“When we were young men and women in Swapo, we had people who were grooming and shaping us. Some came from this village. We talk about people like comrade Kapelwa Kabajani and Greenwell Matongo. They often gave us life’s lessons and boosted our morale,” reminisced an emotional Nambahu.
He attested to challenges faced by the community of the area that are often forced to travel through Botswana to reach the village due to poor road conditions and inaccessibility caused mostly by floods.
“I experienced first-hand how business people struggle to get development to this area. One has to go through immigration both in Namibia and Botswana to reach this village. Our leaders should familiarise themselves with this condition and see what our people are going through every day. Swapo has already systems in place to solve this problem,” Nambahu said at the rally.
Nambahu stated that voting for the opposition would be a betrayal of the aspirations of the struggle hero stalwarts, adding that Swapo has continued to advance peace and stability in the country.
“Let’s support the spirit of our struggle heroes such as Kapelwa Kabajani, Greenwell Matongo, Tobias Hainyeko and many others by voting for Swapo. I am calling on you to vote with the spirit of those who made Namibia a better place. Let’s not betray their spirit. Today we have peace and stability,” implored Nambahu.
Nambahu hailed the Kalimbeza rice project stating that it was incomprehensible before independence for Namibia to have its own locally produced rice.
“Who of you here ate rice produced in Namibia before independence? Now we have the Kalimbeza rice project, the first of its kind in Kabbe Constituency. Who brought it here? It’s the Swapo government and this is just smoke, fire is still coming,” said Nambahu in a veiled reference to other envisaged projects.
By George Sanzila