Swapo is a lion – Shaningwa

Swapo secretary-general Sophia Shaningwa says the party has emerged united and is becoming “stronger and stronger on a daily basis”, debunking claims that there are widening chasms between different factions.

“Swapo is a very big house. It is like a lion in the forest; when Swapo coughs, all sneeze,” Shaningwa said after an extraordinary congress held at the Ramatex complex in Windhoek at the weekend.

She said there was no evidence that the party was “shaking”, and that it was moving ahead, to the contrary.

“There is nothing to indicate that things are not fine; that is a hallucination, a myth,” Shaningwa said in a room packed with enthusiastic members in party regalia.

The two-day extraordinary congress was attended by over 700 delegates from all regions. It was held to deal with outstanding matters from the ordinary congress held in November last year and to deliberate on amendments to the Swapo constitution.

Shaningwa said leaders had over the weekend reiterated that members should be wary of “centrifugal forces that are intent on destroying what took the party many years and so much blood, sweat and tears to build”.

She also denied rumours that the event was held at the Ramatex factory complex because the party was bankrupt, emphasising that the construction of a multimillion-dollar new head office would start soon.





Earlier rumours were that the new, lavish party headquarters would cost more than N$200 million, but Shaningwa did not provide any figure yesterday.

She said the fact that the City of Windhoek had approved the building plans was an indication that the party was not bankrupt.



She said the reason why the groundbreaking for the project had not been done yet was because of a realisation that the party's finances must be dealt with prudently.



Amendments

Shaningwa said the majority of the proposed amendments were adopted, but would not elaborate.

All she was prepared to divulge was that the age limit for top positions in the party was lowered.

“The proposed requirement in age was reduced, so the Swapo Party is looking forward to see the youth taking up higher positions, provided they have served as central committee and politburo members,” she announced.

She said the amendments were “forward-looking” because the world was in transition regarding social and economic development.

The amendments will be announced at a later date when the party launches its new constitution.

Draft resolutions of last year's ordinary congress indicate that the party has adopted socialism “with Namibian characteristics” as its guiding ideology.

Some of these draft resolutions of national importance include a proposal for the establishment of a ministry of cyber-security “to control information in the social media and guard against cybercrimes such as hacking and [to] monitor illicit flows” of money.

Another resolution is that the government should prioritise genocide reparation negotiations between Namibia and Germany, and that the government should investigate how affected families and communities in Botswana and South Africa could be included.

The ordinary congress also resolved that the National Council on Research, Science and Technology (NCRST) should be strengthened and expanded, and that the government be directed to align Namibia with SADC's protocol on education by increasing gross expenditure on research and development by 1%.

It further resolved that the government should implement the Kudu gas project by 2020 and develop a fund for the development of the energy sector.

The draft resolutions state that the government should “seriously consider” laying the foundation for nuclear power generation in Namibia by “relentlessly pursuing a policy of selecting, training and developing a professional cadre of Namibians in the nuclear field, starting with nuclear physicists and technicians”, and the secondment of such physicists and technicians to “friendly nuclear facilities”.

CATHERINE SASMAN