Vote of no confidence in Swanu leadership

OGONE TLHAGE

WINDHOEK

A group of Swanu members have adopted a motion of no confidence in the party’s politburo and central committee, accusing them of not having held meetings for the past three years.

The party’s leadership had failed to hold 12 scheduled sessions since 2018, party member Rihupisa Kandando said at a briefing on Saturday.

According to Kandando, one-third of the party’s members convened for an extraordinary congress to adopt a motion of no confidence in the party’s top brass in line with article 10.1 of the party’s constitution.

“It is with this interpretation in mind that the branches met and deliberated on the status of the party and passed a motion of no confidence in both the Political Bureau (PB) and the Central Committee, the latter for having abdicated its oversight and supervisory function over the PB because it has not convened close to 12 sessions over the last three years,” Kandando said.

The party’s top brass was accused of violating the party’s constitution, Kandando said.

“This extraordinary congress has reaffirmed Swanu’s position that the struggle against public pain that is inflicted by private greediness will continue and policy positions will [be] guided by our long-held ideological inclination of socialism as in the past will be announced,” Kandando said.

Dismissed

Swanu secretary-general Evalistus Kaaronda dismissed the allegations and discouraged party members from attending the congress.

“As a responsible and law-abiding leadership, we have approached our lawyers who in turn wrote and advised Dr Kandando and his congress committee not to go ahead with their planned extraordinary congress,” said Kaaronda.

“We therefore call on all our members not to attend this illegal activity and to reject with the contempt it deserves the unpatriotic and disingenuous agenda of Dr Kandando and his congress committee,” said Kaaronda.