EDITORIAL: Netumbo’s bumpy road to State House

Swapo vice-president Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah is facing harassment from within. Despite the party’s succession policy being as clear as daylight, some have continued to burn the midnight oil searching for loopholes that would bring her candidacy to a spectacular collapse. Sam Nujoma, having witnessed the calamity of the 2004 extraordinary congress, midwifed the succession policy that would prevent further skirmishes. The policy was specifically introduced to put an end to convening an extraordinary congress to nominate a party candidate. The last one birthed the Rally for Democracy and Progress, and an exodus of respected senior party leaders. The succession policy states that, in the event that the incumbent president of the party is ineligible to stand for the position of head of state, the vice-president becomes the automatic candidate of the party. If Nandi-Ndaitwah was to reject nomination for candidacy, secretary-general Sophia Shaningwa would be the party’s candidate. In the extreme instance that Shaningwa too is ineligible or simply does not have appetite for the State House vacancy, her deputy Uahekua Herunga will be the party’s candidate. Nandi-Ndaitwah’s intra-party adversaries are banking their slim hopes on Hage Geingob’s resignation as Swapo president. But even when Hifikepunye Pohamba vacated the same position in 2015, no extraordinary congress was called, so where’s the consistency? Vice-president Geingob acted as party head for two solid years until 2017. If he were to resign today, there’s no reason why electing a new party leader cannot wait until after 2024.