Hidipo Hamutenya returned as Swapo member today after leaving in 2007 to form the Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP).
The 76-year-old was welcomed in a packed hall at Swapo’s head office today.
Hamutenya famously said “it’s cold outside Swapo” when Ben Ulenga left to form the Congress of Democrats (CoD) in 1999.
In 2004, Hamutenya ran for Swapo’s vice-presidency and the party’s presidential candidate against Hifikepunye Pohamba and Nahas Angula. He lost.
He, with other party members who supported his campaign, then left to form RDP.
Many of the RDP leaders blamed Hamuteyna for the party’s dismal performance during last year’s National Assembly elections, where the party fell from having eight seats in parliament to only three, and losing its status as the official opposition party in the National Assembly.
Hamutenya had informed the party’s top four in December that he intended to step down.
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