Swapo vice president Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah says Namibians should dispel perceptions that the ruling party is corrupt.
She says Swapo is a responsible party and rules with integrity.
Nandi-Ndaitwah was speaking at a Swapo rally at Eenhana on Saturday.
“There are those who think we don’t care. However, our party is a caring party,” Nandi-Ndaitwah said.
Swapo has on numerous occasions been linked to the Fishrot corruption scandal, but the party has denied it has benefited from it.
Swapo claims no money has been deposited into its accounts and that individuals accused in the scandal acted in a private capacity.
UNITED
Nandi-Ndaitwah urged party members to be united and do away with 2022 pre-congress campaign groups.
She said she does not belong to a certain faction of Swapo, but to all party members and supporters.
She urged party members to respect her colleagues, Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila and Pohamba Shifeta, who unsuccessfully challenged her for the position of Swapo vice president at Swapo’s elective congress last year.
“As we stand here, we don’t have Netumbo, Saara and Pohamba Shifeta supporters. You have Swapo party supporters,” she said.
She warned that if there is no unity within the party, it would be toppled by opposition parties.
Nandi-Ndaitwah said the party has lost seats, both in the National Assembly and National Council, in 2019 and 2020, and that a lack of unity has caused it to lose its two-thirds majority in the National Assembly, as well as losing dominance in the Hardap and //Kharas regions.
“We have also lost big economic centres in this country (Walvis Bay and Windhoek). This is the time to correct our wrongdoing.
“It’s you and me as party members who should work hard and reclaim what we lost in 2019 and 2020,” she said.
She called on those who left the party to rejoin Swapo, saying: “Your mother is just your mother. You can’t say you are not going back to your mother.”
Nandi-Ndaitwah said she welcomed back more than 300 people from Walvis Bay to Swapo last weekend.
“Namibians love Swapo,” she said.
Speaking at the same event, Swapo secretary general Sophia Shaningwa said Nandi-Ndaitwah has the sole responsibility of uniting the party, and members should support her.
She also called on members to respect Kuugongelwa-Amadhila and Shifeta.
“Going into 2024, the Saara and Shifeta supporters will be together with those who supported Netumbo – all of us are one for Swapo. If we don’t do so, we are not going to win,” Shaningwa said.
‘MERE POLITICKING’
Political analyst Ndumba Kamwanyah says Nandi-Ndaitwah’s statement about Swapo being a caring party is vague and without supporting evidence.
“If anything, it’s mere politicking in action here … How the party has dealt with being implicated in the biggest corruption scandal in the country, Fishrot, and the party’s warm relationship with people implicated in corruption, is not caring … “ Kamwanyah says.
He says a caring party would be up in arms over the country’s endemic corruption, youth unemployment rate of 43%, informal settlement crisis, and gender-based violence.
He says how the party has dealt with individuals receiving money on behalf of the party, corruption-implicated or -convicted members, is clear evidence that it cannot label itself as caring.
“The party has not demonstrated or shown moral leadership on corruption from the development brigade saga to the SSC case, the GIPF, Tipeeg, mass housing, offshore development, SME Bank and many other related cases,” he says.
Kamwanyah says building a multibillion-dollar office amid the country’s multidimensional poverty crisis and worsening economy is not a sign of caring.
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