Swapo to boot Shanghala and Esau from Central Committee

STAFF REPORTER

WINDHOEK



The Swapo Politburo is scheduled to meet today to, among other things, officially remove Fishrot suspects Bernard Esau and Sacky Shanghala from the party's Central Committee and the Politburo.

Shanghala and Esau on Friday marked exactly a year in jail since their arrest on 27 November 2019 on allegations that they masterminded a fishing quota bribery scandal whose transactions the Bank of Namibia projects to be worth N$10 billion. Shanghala and Esau are both members of the Swapo Central Committee, while the latter is also a member of the Politburo.

Ironically, Politburo members Katrina Hanse-Himarwa and Tobie Aupindi, convicted last year of corruption and corruptly providing false information to an officer of the Anti-Corruption Commission, respectively, still serve on that structure and could be part of those deciding to chuck out Esau and Shanghala today.



Reflection of electoral battering

Another highlight on the agenda of today's meeting is to “reflect and direct” party structures on how to deal with the advent of political coalitions following last week's local authority elections in which the party failed to gain the majority of council seats, including in the capital, Windhoek.

Swapo also lost Walvis Bay, while it failed to retain majority seats at Swakopmund, Lüderitz, Oranjemund, Okahandja, Gobabis and Keetmanshoop and Opuwo, among other towns.

In regional council elections, Swapo lost in 32 constituencies across the country, compared to only nine in the last election in 2015.