Otjombinde demands congress inclusion

SWAPO executive committee members from the Otjombinde district have condemned their exclusion from the recently held regional conference and demanded to be allowed to attend the party’s congress in November this year.

The Otjombinde district delegates were excluded from the recent Omaheke conference and will not go to the ruling party’s congress after the conference verification team accused them of “unruly attitudes”.

Otjombinde branch coordinators from the five district branches last Thursday, at a press conference, demanded the redoing of the district conference and for delegates to be elected to attend November’s congress.

They said members of the verification team promoted factionalism by siding with a group supported by regional governor Festus Ueitele which contained delegates from the party wings (SPYL, SPWC, etc.) in the district, “after the DEC [district executive committee] resolved that wings were not allowed to take part in the conference”.

“There were no incidents of unruly behaviour. Our leaders were just reminded of the rules and procedures which they violated,” they said.

According to the statement of the Otjombinde coordinators, the verification team held a conference which did not have a quorum, while the earlier regional conference supervised by former regional coordinator Kejamuina Mungendje had a quorum.

“When our senior leaders fail to resolve the matter with membership they should not resort to petty issues such as intimidation and character assassination,” said the district leaders.

Sources who attended the recent regional conference, said although Otjombinde was disqualified from participating, the district coordinator had been in attendance “as a team player on the side of [Libertina] Amathila”.

Mungendje last week said the Otjombinde district had been unfairly excluded from the regional conference. In a letter addressed to Swapo secretary general Nangolo Mbumba, Mungendje requested Mbumba to postpone the conference over irregularities during district restructuring processes.

Mungendje also said the disagreement around the Otjombinde district conference stemmed from the participation of party wings, because “these structures were not properly restructured”.

Mbumba yesterday confirmed receiving the report of the Omaheke conference and was waiting for politburo endorsement.

“We respect the report from Dr Libertina Amathila who was the last senior leader who was left in Omaheke,” he said.

Mbumba, however, said Otjombinde district was given a second chance to organise themselves and to elect new leadership from which to elect a candidates to the party’s November congress.

“It is still up to them to tell us that all the structures are now in place, but I don’t think they can manage that before congress. But never say never,” said Mbumba.

He said that Otjombinde can still go to congress if they can “finalise their things, but given the difficulties they have amongst themselves, I don’t know how they can do that because even with the help of Dr Amathila they were not able to do it”.