Swapo admits mistakes were made at Helao Nafidi

Swapo Party secretary-general Nangolo Mbumba has admitted that the party made a mistake when it replaced a Helao Nafidi town councillor.
Lucia Nghililewanga was on the party’s candidate list for Helao Nafidi during the 2015 local authority elections, only to be replaced days before the swearing-in ceremony by someone who did not feature on the party list.
Explaining what happened, Mbumba said Nghililewanga was left out because Swapo had won six of the seven seats and the regional office thought it was best for seats to be divided equally among the three districts of Oshikango, Engela and Ohangwena.
He said that’s why they replaced Nghililewanga with Esther Nghidimbwa from Oshikango district because Ohangwena district after the election had three candidates qualifying for seats on the Helao Nafidi town council.
Mbumba said the balancing of districts was supposed to be done prior to the election and not after.
He added that according to the party rules, once a person is number one on the list they retain that position.
“Our rule is that once you are number one or number two…..you stick to your position and we are now rectifying that as Nghililewanga will take her place and the one who was put there …we convinced her to leave,” Mbumba said.
He said the necessary paper work has been done and it’s now up to the local authority to approach the magistrate’s court to swear in Nghililewanga.
However, the matter doesn’t end there. Nghililewanga was number two on the party list, which qualified her to become the deputy mayor, a position now held by Panduleni Hainghumbi who was number three on the party list.
Contacted for comment, Ngililewanga said she had not been informed of her reinstatement but she was happy with the decision.
“It is good to know that I will have a chance to serve the people who voted for me,” she said.
KENYA KAMBOWE