Exposed: Swapo’s ghost branches

KENYA KAMBOWE



The recent ‘battle of Rundu’, which pitted Swapo secretary-general Sophia Shaningwa against three rebel councillors who had defied her directive, has exposed the existence of so-called ghost branches in Swapo’s Rundu Urban district structure.

During the height of the stand-off between Shaningwa and the politburo on one side, and the three councillors on the other, the party’s district structure, which consists of 79 branches, tried to meet four times, but was unable to reach a quorum.

There are now feverish allegations that this is because ghost branches were created in the run-up to the 4 July 2015 Swapo Rundu Urban district conference, which were represented by delegates who have since disappeared.

According to a document relating to the conference, 79 branches were represented.

Prior to the conference the Rundu Urban district only had 23 branches.

Allegations have now emerged that the ghost branches were masterminded by Swapo’s former Rundu Urban district mobiliser, Victoria Kauma, who is the current Rundu Urban constituency councillor.

Kauma is said to have benefitted from the votes cast by these branches at the 2015 district conference, as delegates who purportedly represented these ghost branches had nominated and voted for her to stand as the party’s constituency councillor candidate in the 2016 local government elections.

Kauma, however, denied these allegations, saying the story of ghost branches was being created by people who had an agenda.

“The branches were all complete during my time. This story of no branches, no quorum is something people want to create for a reason we don’t know. If you do not make a quorum, it does not say that you don’t have branches,” Kauma said.

When asked why the Swapo Rundu Urban district structure was currently made up of 79 branches and not 23, Kauma explained that they had inherited 53 branches from the Rundu Rural and Rundu Rural West districts.

She further explained that this was the result of the former Kavango Region being split into east and west.

She further attributed the increase in branches to the size of the population, saying Rundu Urban was growing and had many people, and therefore many Swapo sections had been formed.

She could, however, not provide details of these sections or how many there were.

Attempts to get statistics from Swapo’s Rundu office proved futile.

The party’s Kavango East regional coordinator, Otillie Shinduvi, said when she entered the office in 2017, she found no database on the sections, only information about the 79 branches.

Meanwhile, a reliable source privy to the 4 July 2015 Rundu Urban district conference explained how the ghost branches may have been created.

The source said when Rundu Urban inherited branches, there was no physical handover of members; only the names of branches and their representatives were forwarded.

He said this was the loophole needed for ghost branches to be added to the list of inherited branches.

“This is why during the conference we saw a lot of people amongst us; don’t forget that we only had 23 branches before and at the conference there were delegates from the other 53 branches. There was no proper vetting done to confirm whether they were legitimate Swapo members or not,” the source said.

“The strange part is that we do not see those people anymore and that is why the district cannot have meetings.”

Among the ghost branches are said to be the Ugongo, Chris Hani, Festus Matunga, John Moyo, Samuel Mbambo and Sipwizumukiro branches.

When contacted for comment, former Swapo Kavango East regional coordinator Marceline Kahare said her role at the 2015 Rundu Urban district conference was only to supervise.

“I only supervised the district conference but I did not know where the people came from. If the delegates come from the branches and they form a quorum, the district conference happens; but I think you should get hold of the former district coordinator,” Kahare said.

“If there were ghost branches, it is their own problem. I could not have intervened because it would have been going against the authority of the district executive.”

When contacted for comment, former Rundu Urban district coordinator Justina Veiko referred all questions to Kauma, despite confirming she knew about the ghost branches’ allegations.

According to Swapo's current Kavango East regional coordinator, Otillie Shinduvi, when she assumed her post the ghost branches’ allegations were already swirling around in the Rundu Urban district.

Shinduvi said it is difficult to resolve the matter, but that it would be addressed during an upcoming restructuring process this month.

Shinduvi said the issue of the Rundu Urban district having 79 branches will be addressed.

“The regional leadership is currently on the ground and we are going to address all these issues.”