Geingob orders Jerry candidacy consideration
Central committee to meet this week
The Swapo president has instructed the party headquarters to ensure a special meeting is convened to put to bed the Ekandjo candidacy debacle.
President Hage Geingob on Friday wrote to Swapo secretary general Sophia Shaningwa to convene a special central committee meeting to discuss the request of Jerry Ekandjo to be included in the race for the party’s coveted vice-president (VP) position.
Ekandjo came third in central committee elections for VP candidates, behind Pohamba Shifeta and Frans Kapofi, who later withdrew from the race.
Ekandjo, through his lawyer Richard Metcalfe, initially challenged the decision to allow Kapofi in the race, and later questioned why he was still not allowed in the race after Kapofi’s withdrawal. The fact that only one man, Shifeta, is left in the race against two female candidates defeats the party’s much-trumpeted 50/50 gender balance principle.
Female candidates
International relations minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah and Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila are the other candidates vying for the VP’s position. The two female candidates and Shifeta have been to several regions to engage congress delegates and sell their ideas, as per the new campaign rules designed to mitigate further divisions in the party.
On Friday, Namibian Sun quoted Swapo veteran and former prime minister Nahas Angula, who said Geingob, as both president of Swapo and chairperson of the central committee, must explain why Ekandjo was being kept out of the race, despite being duly nominated and voted by 37 central committee members to stand.
Angula said: “In my view, he [Ekandjo] is not crying, it is just his democratic right as per the Swapo Party constitution. That question as to why Comrade Ekandjo is being denied a chance to exercise his democratic right as a member of Swapo should really be asked to the chairman of the central committee [Geingob].”
Discuss
Geingob fired Ekandjo from his Cabinet in 2018 after the latter challenged him for the position of party president at the 2017 congress.
Geingob on Friday wrote to Shaningwa, asking her to convene a special central committee meeting to discuss Ekandjo’s candidacy.
In her reply to Geingob the same day, Shaningwa said Ekandjo’s letters were written directly to Geingob, perhaps implying that she had no mandate to act on the matter raised only with her party principal.
“I have no reason to not adhere to an instruction or request by the president to call for a central committee meeting,” Shaningwa wrote.
She added: “Administratively, it would mean that it will be a very hectic schedule for all of us.”
A separate letter, seen by Namibian Sun by Shaningwa to central committee members, states that the meeting is now scheduled for this Friday in Windhoek, with Ekandjo’s candidacy the only agenda on the table.
Waning popularity
Ekandjo’s possible inclusion in the race will change the dynamics of the contest.
Once very popular in Swapo circles, Ekandjo’s political currency waned from 2012 and further in 2017 after he challenged, and lost, to Geingob on both occasions.
A former Swapo think tank member said: “Despite all the gender talks, Swapo is generally not ready to be led by a woman. A man would always pose a challenge in a contest like that.”
Ekandjo came third in central committee elections for VP candidates, behind Pohamba Shifeta and Frans Kapofi, who later withdrew from the race.
Ekandjo, through his lawyer Richard Metcalfe, initially challenged the decision to allow Kapofi in the race, and later questioned why he was still not allowed in the race after Kapofi’s withdrawal. The fact that only one man, Shifeta, is left in the race against two female candidates defeats the party’s much-trumpeted 50/50 gender balance principle.
Female candidates
International relations minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah and Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila are the other candidates vying for the VP’s position. The two female candidates and Shifeta have been to several regions to engage congress delegates and sell their ideas, as per the new campaign rules designed to mitigate further divisions in the party.
On Friday, Namibian Sun quoted Swapo veteran and former prime minister Nahas Angula, who said Geingob, as both president of Swapo and chairperson of the central committee, must explain why Ekandjo was being kept out of the race, despite being duly nominated and voted by 37 central committee members to stand.
Angula said: “In my view, he [Ekandjo] is not crying, it is just his democratic right as per the Swapo Party constitution. That question as to why Comrade Ekandjo is being denied a chance to exercise his democratic right as a member of Swapo should really be asked to the chairman of the central committee [Geingob].”
Discuss
Geingob fired Ekandjo from his Cabinet in 2018 after the latter challenged him for the position of party president at the 2017 congress.
Geingob on Friday wrote to Shaningwa, asking her to convene a special central committee meeting to discuss Ekandjo’s candidacy.
In her reply to Geingob the same day, Shaningwa said Ekandjo’s letters were written directly to Geingob, perhaps implying that she had no mandate to act on the matter raised only with her party principal.
“I have no reason to not adhere to an instruction or request by the president to call for a central committee meeting,” Shaningwa wrote.
She added: “Administratively, it would mean that it will be a very hectic schedule for all of us.”
A separate letter, seen by Namibian Sun by Shaningwa to central committee members, states that the meeting is now scheduled for this Friday in Windhoek, with Ekandjo’s candidacy the only agenda on the table.
Waning popularity
Ekandjo’s possible inclusion in the race will change the dynamics of the contest.
Once very popular in Swapo circles, Ekandjo’s political currency waned from 2012 and further in 2017 after he challenged, and lost, to Geingob on both occasions.
A former Swapo think tank member said: “Despite all the gender talks, Swapo is generally not ready to be led by a woman. A man would always pose a challenge in a contest like that.”
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