Shapwa breaks silence on AR donation claims

Businessman Shapwa Kanyama has challenged those who claim he gave Affirmative Repositioning (AR) leader Job Amupanda N$50 000 to come forth with evidence.He said he has taken enough punches from people accusing him of all sorts of things, a situation that is tarnishing his name and the reputation of his businesses, he added.Kanyama said he will never deny that he and Amupanda are friends, and will not ditch the friendship now that they have different political homes.“Job and I are friends. I’ll never deny him. We have been friends since our days at Unam [the University of Namibia] and we were good comrades in Swapo before he quit the party,” he said.He added: “I am in Swapo but Job is my friend – so there would be nothing wrong with helping a friend financially if I had done so. But I did not. “I wouldn’t deny giving a friend some money if I had done so, but in this case I have not.”Provide bank statementsA rebellious clique within AR has accused Amupanda of accepting bribes and not declaring other donations to the movement – including the supposed N$50 000 from Kanyama. Amupanda has scoffed at the allegations.Kanyama said: “I am tired of people making accusations against me, and it happens so frequently these days - that’s why I sometimes resort to lawsuits because if I just keep denying, no one will believe me. “You saw the things that got said about me during my wedding. The allegations are so serious that if they were true one could even go to jail – or get assassinated on the road by people who believe these things to be true.“I never gave Job or AR any money. Anyone claiming to know this must provide banking statements of such transactions. And if it was in brown envelopes, as some alleged, then how do they know it was N$50 000?”AccountabilityAR activists Paulus Kathanga and Simon Amunime said they were suspended from the movement after demanding accountability from Amupanda. At a press conference on Sunday, Amupanda and other leaders of the movement said the pair was not suspended but simply asked to excuse themselves from a meeting discussing their fate on Saturday, after which they threw their toys out of the cot.Co-founder Dimbulukeni Nauyoma, in a letter from his jail cell yesterday, expressed "deep shock" at the "decision of the minority" to suspend Kathanga and Amunime.But another co-founder George Kambala, who sat alongside Amupanda during Sunday’s press conference, yesterday tweeted: “Good morning activists, from here onwards, it&#039;s just smooth sailing”.In his letter yesterday, Nauyoma said if AR does not "self-correct", it will become like Swapo, which in 2015 expelled Nauyoma and three others for perceived critical views against the party. They were reinstated after challenging their expulsion in court. Nauyoma was arrested in May alongside Namibia Economic Freedom Fighters (NEFF) commissar Michael Amushelelo after protests at Chinatown industrial complex in Windhoek, which they threatened to burn down because it is allegedly being favoured by authorities while fake goods of indigenous Namibians are being targeted for destruction.

Shapwa breaks silence on AR donation claims

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-19

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Shapwa breaks silence on AR donation claims

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-19

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