Swapo crowd defies cops

TEARGAS had to be used to disperse Swapo Party supporters intent on stopping an RDP rally from taking place at the ‘One Nation Shitemba’ informal settlement in Katutura on Saturday.

A large contingent of Police officers and the Police Task Force moved in to try and defuse a potentially explosive situation after about 150 people started taking up positions at the open area where the RDP planned to meet. The crowd refused to disperse when asked to by the Police.Instead, many hurled insults at the Police and taunted them.In the face of the defiance, the Police formed a human chain and walked forward, driving the people from the open space, but as soon as that was completed, some of the crowd ran back there.The Regional Councillor for the Moses Garoëb constituency, Helena Andreas, dressed in Swapo Party colours, was reportedly so confrontational towards the Police that an officer had to threaten to arrest her if she did not back down.Six men were arrested briefly, among them an off-duty Police officer whose pistol was confiscated.Three more pistols were seized from the other five men.As the Police tried to bring the situation under control, a number of babies and children were affected by the teargas, angering their mothers who blamed the Police.A young woman was arrested after she picked up a large stone, allegedly to throw at RDP members.”My shirt was torn off during the arrest and my bare breasts were seen by the crowd and in this way – half naked – I was driven to the Ombili mobile Police station,” the woman claimed to The Namibian.Asked what she had done to cause the arrest, she replied, “Nothing.””We don’t want the RDP here, this is our area,” community leader and Swapo member Paulus Loth told The Namibian on Saturday.”They did not work through the community to inform us about their rally,” he said.When told by The Namibian that in municipal areas only the Police and the municipality had to be notified of rallies, Loth said this did not matter.”Things work differently here than in Eros or Windhoek West,” he charged.The RDP had notified the Police in advance that they would hold a rally at One Nation Shitemba.RDP leaders were alerted on Saturday morning by its supporters that Swapo members had gathered at the open space to prevent the rally from going ahead.”RDP must not hold a rally here in the Moses Garoëb constituency, the regional by-election on October 31 is next door in the Tobias Hainyeko constituency,” several Swapo supporters told The Namibian.The previous weekend Swapo held a campaign rally at the same spot to lobby support for the upcoming by-election.Commissioner Andries van der Byl, the Police Deputy Commander for the Khomas Region and responsible for operations, said he went there on Saturday morning after he was informed about Swapo supporters gathering.”I appealed to the crowd to disperse because of the RDP rally taking place in the afternoon, but they refused.I informed community leader Loth that according to municipal laws and regulations, organisations could hold public meetings with prior notification, but they stayed,” he told The Namibian.Swapo flags that had been put up in a nearby tree were taken down by the Police before the RDP rally was scheduled to take place.According to Phil ya Nangoloh, Executive Director of the National Society for Human Rights, (NSHR), the verbal abuse and insults hurled at the Police contingent in indigenous languages was “unacceptable”.”Respect for the uniform and for Police instructions was clearly lacking here,” he told The Namibian.At around 14h30 the RDP candidate for the by-election, ‘Kaptein’ Erasmus Hendjala, decided to cancel the rally and the Police escorted him to his home.Interim RDP Secretary General Jesaya Nyamu, who had arrived at the scene a few minutes earlier, called on Government to stop such intimidation.”We will not accept being hunted down like that, similar to the apartheid era,” he said.Swapo Party Youth League leader Elijah Ngurare, who also arrived at the scene, claimed the Police and the RDP ignored the councillor for the constituency.”If you want the place, you contact the councillor for the constituency.It is more like RDP and the Police against others.The area is not where the election is taking place.They should not have been there in the first place,” Ngurare said.Khomas Regional Councillor Sophia Shaningwa, who arrived after most of the trouble was over, claimed the Swapo supporters were innocent and the teargas could have been avoided.”All these babies and small children suffered and have red eyes from the gas, they are traumatised by the events,” she told The Namibian.”We don’t want a fight, but nobody can just come in here and provoke,” Shaningwa said.The crowd refused to disperse when asked to by the Police.Instead, many hurled insults at the Police and taunted them.In the face of the defiance, the Police formed a human chain and walked forward, driving the people from the open space, but as soon as that was completed, some of the crowd ran back there.The Regional Councillor for the Moses Garoëb constituency, Helena Andreas, dressed in Swapo Party colours, was reportedly so confrontational towards the Police that an officer had to threaten to arrest her if she did not back down. Six men were arrested briefly, among them an off-duty Police officer whose pistol was confiscated.Three more pistols were seized from the other five men.As the Police tried to bring the situation under control, a number of babies and children were affected by the teargas, angering their mothers who blamed the Police.A young woman was arrested after she picked up a large stone, allegedly to throw at RDP members.”My shirt was torn off during the arrest and my bare breasts were seen by the crowd and in this way – half naked – I was driven to the Ombili mobile Police station,” the woman claimed to The Namibian.Asked what she had done to cause the arrest, she replied, “Nothing.””We don’t want the RDP here, this is our area,” community leader and Swapo member Paulus Loth told The Namibian on Saturday.”They did not work through the community to inform us about their rally,” he said.When told by The Namibian that in municipal areas only the Police and the municipality had to be notified of rallies, Loth said this did not matter.”Things work differently here than in Eros or Windhoek West,” he charged.The RDP had notified the Police in advance that they would hold a rally at One Nation Shitemba.RDP leaders were alerted on Saturday morning by its supporters that Swapo members had gathered at the open space to prevent the rally from going ahead.”RDP must not hold a rally here in the Moses Garoëb constituency, the regional by-election on October 31 is next door in the Tobias Hainyeko constituency,” several Swapo supporters told The Namibian.The previous weekend Swapo held a campaign rally at the same spot to lobby support for the upcoming by-election.Commissioner Andries van der Byl, the Police Deputy Commander for the Khomas Region and responsible for operations, said he went there on Saturday morning after he was informed about Swapo supporters gathering.”I appealed to the crowd to disperse because of the RDP rally taking place in the afternoon, but they refused.I informed community leader Loth that according to municipal laws and regulations, organisations could hold public meetings with prior notification, but they stayed,” he told The Namibian.Swapo flags that had been put up in a nearby tree were taken down by the Police before the RDP rally was scheduled to take place.According to Phil ya Nangoloh, Executive Director of the National Society for Human Rights, (NSHR), the verbal abuse and insults hurled at the Police contingent in indigenous languages was “unacceptable”.”Respect for the uniform and for Police instructions was clearly lacking here,” he told The Namibian.At around 14h30 the RDP candidate for the by-election, ‘Kaptein’ Erasmus Hendjala, decided to cancel the rally and the Police escorted him to his home.Interim RDP Secretary General Jesaya Nyamu, who had arrived at the scene a few minutes earlier, called on Government to stop such intimidation.”We will not accept being hunted down like that, similar to the apartheid era,” he said.Swapo Party Youth League leader Elijah Ngurare, who also arrived at the scene, claimed the Police and the RDP ignored the councillor for the constituency.”If you want the place, you contact the councillor for the constituency.It is more like RDP and the Police against others.The area is not where the election is taking place.They should not have been there in the first place,” Ngurare said.Khomas Regional Councillor Sophia Shaningwa, who arrived after most of the trouble was over, claimed the Swapo supporters were innocent and the teargas could have been avoided.”All these babies and small children suffered and have red eyes from the gas, they are traumatised by the events,” she told The Namibian.”We don’t want a fight, but nobody can just come in here and provoke,” Shaningwa said.