Kuzeeko Tjitemisa
WINDHOEK – Candidates for ‘Team Nudo’ have promised to revive the party in parliament once elected into positions, saying its current members in the National Assembly are nothing but a bunch of “dead wood”.
“We have so many issues affecting Namibians – gender-based violence, lack of jobs among the youth, lack of houses but yet our two representatives in the National Assembly are sitting there doing nothing, shame on them, what are they there for? Do receive salaries? No, no, no …” said National Unity Democratic Organisation (Nudo) presidential hopeful, Utjiua Muinjangue.
Muinjangue will go head-on against the popular Vetaruhe Kandorozu for the party’s top position this coming weekend when the party holds its elective congress in Windhoek. According to ‘Team Nudo’ 501 delegates will attend the congress.
Speaking during ‘Team Nudo’’s final star rally at the UN Plaza, Katutura in Windhoek on Saturday, Muinjangue said the two leaders [Nudo president Asser Mbai and secretary general Meundju Jahanika] have lost integrity and vision and the only thing they do is to go “sleep” in parliament, and wait merely to draw their monthly salaries.
“The time is now to replace them [Mbai and Jahanika] with young visionary leaders,” said Muinjangue, who should she be elected as party president will be the first woman to lead a political party in Namibia.
“The little resources that we have are misused – the party’s accounts are being linked to those of individuals. The only vehicle that we have has been personalised, is being used to transport water of individuals at Havana. Our party is in a pathetic condition, this is the time to change that,” she said.
She further called on the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to look into the N$520,000 allegedly missing from the party’s accounts.
Speaking at the same occasion, ‘Team Nudo’ candidate for secretary general Joseph Kauandenge assured his team that their slate has already won.
“The reason that I am saying that we already won is because we have 114 delegates in Windhoek, 88 for Aminuis Constituency, 96 delegates from Erongo Region, 16 delegates from Omaruru, 10 delegates from Omatjete and combined we will have 350 delegates of the 501 to the congress,” said Kauandenge.
Kauandenge says once elected his team will fight for radical economic transformation for the Namibia society “because we can longer afford to have shacks in an independent Namibia because this country has enough money and resources to be used and spent on our people”.
“We cannot continue to have some of our people living in informal settlements 27 years after independence – we want to advocate a change in that direction,” he added.
He said more importantly, “we want to call for the amendment of the Namibian Constitution so that ancestral land rights must come back, so that people who have lost land can get their land back.” Kauandenge is the Nudo councillor at the City of Windhoek.
“We can no longer afford to support the policy of willing buyer, willing seller that has been here for some time but is not working because those that have land are now running away with our land, while we don’t have land. Those are some of the two issues that we will be advocating,” he said.
Muinjangue’s slate includes, Aminius Constituency Councillor Peter Kazongominja as vice-president, Uaraa Uapingene as deputy SG, Elia Kandjii as national chairperson, former Omaruru mayor Vincent Kahua as secretary for information, Fanuel Haukambe as national treasurer, Swakopmund Councillor Uahimisa Kaapehi as director of elections, Kaputara Kuvare as deputy national chairperson, Vetondisa Tjijenda as national mobiliser and coordinator and the youthful Dan Maekopo as deputy treasurer: reporting and budgeting.
The rally was attended by several traditional leaders, including Ovaherero Chief Usiel Kambirongo and Chief Daniel Marenga.
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