Top-four rallies banned
Swapo members, divided by the Team Harambee versus Team Swapo contest ahead of the party’s 2017 congress, “could not sit around the same table”.
KENYA KAMBOWE
Swapo’s Oshana regional coordinator, Samuel Nelongo, says party members contesting for top-four positions at future elective congresses will not be allowed to hold rallies in the region.
Nelongo says this resolution was taken following the events before and after the 2017 Swapo elective congress, when party members behaved in an unpatriotic manner by dividing themselves into two groups, which he says widened disunity in the party.
He says the ban on rallies ahead of future Swapo elective congresses is not an attempt to disadvantage top-four candidates, but rather an attempt to revive the ruling party and make it more relevant.
Nelongo says many delegates left the November 2017 congress more divided, which meant that as the Oshana regional coordinator, he had to figure out what to do to restore lost unity.
“We assessed ourselves and we saw what last year’s congress did to our region. Our members were divided; we could not sit around the same table but we belong to the same political party, which is wrong. In politics we must differ and debate, but we must still respect one another,” Nelongo said.
Vicious battles
The run-up to last year’s Swapo congress was tainted by vicious battles between the so-called Harambee faction led by President Hage Geingob and a faction calling themselves Team Swapo.
This included allegations of vote-buying and personal attacks made at rallies across the country.
Geingob explicitly campaigned that he could only work with his top-four slate, which was himself as party president, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah and vice-president, Sophia Shaningwa as secretary-general and Marco Hausiku as deputy SG.
The other camp coalesced around Jerry Ekandjo and Nahas Angula as its presidential candidates, Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana as vice-president, Armas Amukwiyu as SG and Petrina Haingura and Martha Namundjebo-Tilahun as its deputy SG candidates.
A contested result saw Team Harambee winning landslide victories in each of the top-four contests. At the beginning of the year, then sports minister Ekandjo and then home affairs minister Iivula-Ithana were unceremoniously sacked from their cabinet posts by Geingob for their scathing attacks on his administration during their campaigns.
There have been repeated calls from disgruntled party members for an independent audit into the congress, while social media attacks continue by forces on both sides.
Nelongo says future top-four Swapo candidates will have to go through the office of the regional coordinator, who will gather the region’s delegates to meet and engage with them, but this will not be done in the form of a rally.
“The candidates will go through the office of the regional coordinator and they will meet the delegates, as per their request, and they will engage each other.”
He says the introduction of the Swapo Party School outreach programme has, to a certain extent, helped to unite the party.
Currently 218 Swapo members from Oshana are attending the party school induction course in the region.
Nelongo praises the Swapo leadership for coming up with the initiative, which he says came at the right time and will assist in addressing many challenges they faced in the past.
“Since the outreach programme came into effect, it was received positively by the members, and it has to a certain extent already united our members.
“There is no more what we call Team Harambee or Team Swapo in our meetings, because we talk about these things with the hope of reviving the spirit of patriotism.”
He says the party school programme, which is based on debates and is not a platform for party members to shame and blame one another, creates an environment to look at the bigger picture, which is to develop the country through good leadership.
Swapo’s Oshana regional coordinator, Samuel Nelongo, says party members contesting for top-four positions at future elective congresses will not be allowed to hold rallies in the region.
Nelongo says this resolution was taken following the events before and after the 2017 Swapo elective congress, when party members behaved in an unpatriotic manner by dividing themselves into two groups, which he says widened disunity in the party.
He says the ban on rallies ahead of future Swapo elective congresses is not an attempt to disadvantage top-four candidates, but rather an attempt to revive the ruling party and make it more relevant.
Nelongo says many delegates left the November 2017 congress more divided, which meant that as the Oshana regional coordinator, he had to figure out what to do to restore lost unity.
“We assessed ourselves and we saw what last year’s congress did to our region. Our members were divided; we could not sit around the same table but we belong to the same political party, which is wrong. In politics we must differ and debate, but we must still respect one another,” Nelongo said.
Vicious battles
The run-up to last year’s Swapo congress was tainted by vicious battles between the so-called Harambee faction led by President Hage Geingob and a faction calling themselves Team Swapo.
This included allegations of vote-buying and personal attacks made at rallies across the country.
Geingob explicitly campaigned that he could only work with his top-four slate, which was himself as party president, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah and vice-president, Sophia Shaningwa as secretary-general and Marco Hausiku as deputy SG.
The other camp coalesced around Jerry Ekandjo and Nahas Angula as its presidential candidates, Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana as vice-president, Armas Amukwiyu as SG and Petrina Haingura and Martha Namundjebo-Tilahun as its deputy SG candidates.
A contested result saw Team Harambee winning landslide victories in each of the top-four contests. At the beginning of the year, then sports minister Ekandjo and then home affairs minister Iivula-Ithana were unceremoniously sacked from their cabinet posts by Geingob for their scathing attacks on his administration during their campaigns.
There have been repeated calls from disgruntled party members for an independent audit into the congress, while social media attacks continue by forces on both sides.
Nelongo says future top-four Swapo candidates will have to go through the office of the regional coordinator, who will gather the region’s delegates to meet and engage with them, but this will not be done in the form of a rally.
“The candidates will go through the office of the regional coordinator and they will meet the delegates, as per their request, and they will engage each other.”
He says the introduction of the Swapo Party School outreach programme has, to a certain extent, helped to unite the party.
Currently 218 Swapo members from Oshana are attending the party school induction course in the region.
Nelongo praises the Swapo leadership for coming up with the initiative, which he says came at the right time and will assist in addressing many challenges they faced in the past.
“Since the outreach programme came into effect, it was received positively by the members, and it has to a certain extent already united our members.
“There is no more what we call Team Harambee or Team Swapo in our meetings, because we talk about these things with the hope of reviving the spirit of patriotism.”
He says the party school programme, which is based on debates and is not a platform for party members to shame and blame one another, creates an environment to look at the bigger picture, which is to develop the country through good leadership.
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