Haufiku urges Swapo to apologise to ‘runaway members’

Tuyeimo HaidulaONDOBEFormer health minister Dr Bernard Haufiku has urged the party to eat humble pie, apologise to its “runaway members” and ask them to return as it has lost “impactful young leaders”. Haufiku made the remarks during an interview with Namibian Sun at Ondobe in the Ohangwena Region last Saturday, where Swapo vice-president Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah was the keynote speaker for a belated Heroes Day commemoration.

In recent years, Swapo lost members who went to form and lead adversarial entities such as the Landless People’s Movement (LPM), Affirmative Repositioning (AR) and Independent Patriots for Change (IPC).

Describing himself as someone more focused on practicing medicine than politics, he said the November congress is fast approaching and, as Swapo members, they are recognising some of the mistakes made at past congresses.

“Frankly speaking, the results were not pleasant [at the 2004 and 2017 congresses]. A lot of young, energetic people left the party. We could still have held onto those critical members.

“Often, we tend to think that people are leaving because they are selfish and they want power. It is not the case. “Often people are disgruntled by things happening in the party,” he stressed, adding that should the party apologise, some of the former members may be willing to return.

Corruption dilly-dallying

Haufiku said Swapo dilly-dallies around issues of corruption and has not sent out a strong message to regain the trust of the people.

“We are not as bold as we should be in terms of condemning corruption in the party. It is absolutely necessary that we tighten policies on corruption.

“If I commit a certain corrupt act and I get convicted, if it’s not more than 12 months or so, I can run for office. I think we need to flesh that out. Whether you are convicted for one day, one week or a month, I think you should not be given a chance to run again for office,” he said.

Accept criticism

He further said party leadership should be open to criticism and should not be sensitive when their faults are pointed out.

Haufiku added that one only becomes stronger if they listen to constructive criticism.

Meanwhile, land is a burning issue which needs to be addressed, he said, and the party as well as government need to act on both urban land and farm land.

“It is unacceptable that nurses, police officers and administrative workers do not have houses. If we can address this, we will not be uncomfortable when people challenge us and even push them out of the party.

“When we say farm land should not have absentee owners, we should mean it. When we put policies of ‘one person, one farm’, we should implement it. These are issues we should address if we are to gain the trust of those who left us,” Haufiku said.

The ruling party has a better chance at success if its members work together and admit they have made mistakes in the past, accept their mistakes and work towards rectifying them, he added.

“Time is not in our favour. We have to act boldly and fast.”