Centre of power

JEMIMA BEUKES



While alienated Swapo members insist there has been a shift in power away from the party to President Hage Geingob and his Harambee gospel, the Swapo secretary-general has called these assertions “sour grapes”.

This follows a nasty congress battle last year, which a local constitutional expert argues has left Swapo reeling, torn and unable to correct itself.

In an in-depth interview with Namibian Sun this week, Swapo secretary-general Sophia Shaningwa said accusations implying that Geingob and his Harambee Prosperity Plan had replaced the party as the centre of power were just “sour grapes”.

She said in every race there would always be winners and losers and it was human that some might not be able to accept defeat.

“But we cannot sit and cry foul and stand still because some are suffering from a hangover. Perhaps it will take time for these wounds to be healed. All of us had an opportunity to pronounce ourselves on the outcome (of last year’s congress),” she said.

She insisted the internal party election process was transparent and should be accepted by party members.

“I was not expecting to see this unhappiness - the commotions. No one was ambushed. There is nothing like two centres of power. There is no way that Geingob can put Swapo aside and start doing his own things,” she said.

Team Swapo members, who contested Geingob and his slate, had ferociously pushed the narrative that the party should be the centre of power and that it had been overtaken by Geingob and his Harambee Prosperity Plan.

Geingob, who was the acting Swapo president before the congress, has also been accused, along with his supporters, of flouting the Swapo constitution.

These accusations were repeated in an official complaint laid by Swapo members following the congress, amid calls for an independent audit.

During the campaign Geingob had been accused of deliberately surrounding himself with yes-men and yes-women in an effort to assert himself as the main centre of power in the party.

Driven by their so-called quest to revive and restore the party, Team Swapo in an unprecedented fashion hurled insults at Geingob, whom they blamed for the country’s economic downturn and deepening poverty.

Despite the party accepting the outcome as a united front, following a landslide win by Geingob and his slate, these accusations have persisted on social media and the so-called ‘Breaking News’ updates posted by anonymous sources.

Former Swapo youth leader Elijah Ngurare, who was an outspoken Team Swapo member during the run-up to the congress, said yesterday he maintained that there must be a separation between party and government structures.

“The narrative pushed by Team Swapo was that if you have the same leaders in the party and government then there is the possibility that they will become arrogant and fail to implement the policies of the party. And no one can hold them accountable. The party must be able to tell you when you are on the wrong path,” he said.

According to him, the current state of affairs will lead to an absolute abuse of power and people “can even kill people”.

He believes that parliament is not in a position to hold the executive accountable, who are also MPs, as they are “afraid to bite the hand that feeds them”.

“Now you find a situation where people amend legislation to appoint their friends as vice-presidents. Parliament blindly supports these legislations because they have been appointed in certain positions, that’s why,” he said.

He questioned the removal of Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana and Jerry Ekandjo from cabinet, who had expressed themselves strongly against the president.

Geingob fired the two as the home affairs and sport ministers, respectively, barely two months after the congress outcome.

Ekandjo and former prime minister Nahas Angula had stood against Geingob, while Team Swapo members Helmut Angula and Iivula-Ithana had unsuccessfully challenged international relations minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah for the party vice-presidency.

After the congress, former vice-president Nickey Iyambo was replaced by Geingob’s biggest supporter, Nangolo Mbumba, who is the former Swapo SG.

“They (Ekandjo and Iivula-Ithana) expressed themselves strongly in parliament. But parliament should be a completely different and independent branch,” Ngurare argued.

Meanwhile, constitutional expert Nico Horn believes the contrary and said the removal of Iivula-Ithana and Ekandjo was expected.

In fact, he said it was surprising that Geingob did not do it earlier.

“When you work in a cabinet you need some kind of loyalty and unison, which was broken up by the different teams that was formed during the run-up to the congress. I do not think the problem was with the Harambee plan but predominantly with the campaigns, which were very democratically done, but it caused a lot of harm to members,” he said.

Horn emphasised that Geingob had always been a loner who did his own thing, but added he believed that the party was perhaps now beyond repair.

“What I see is a very deep wreck… A real rift. And it looks as if they cannot come to grips with fighting a very vicious campaign and come together again.”

Horn raised the decline of the Swapo youth league, saying it appeared as if the current leaders were not as vibrant as their predecessors.

“We have never seen the new leaders take the centre stage or grip the attention of people like their predecessors. There doesn’t seem to be tension between them and president. Is it that the president is oppressing them or are they just not vibrant leaders?” he asked.