RP is as strong as ever, says Mudge

DESPITE losing four local councillors in the space of a week, Republican Party (RP) president Henk Mudge maintains his party has never been stronger.

The RP yesterday confirmed the resignation of its Keetmanshoop and Aranos local councillors, as well as its Aranos branch chairperson, following the departure from the party of Windhoek councillor Nico Smit last week.Smit says he quit on Friday because he was fed up with Mudge’s leadership, while Mudge maintains Smit was suspended and dismissed by a regional committee, whose existence Smit denies.At a press conference on Tuesday, Mudge, accompanied by members of the disputed Khomas Regional Committee, said his party was as strong as ever following the recent rift.’Not Nico Smit nor anybody else will break the back of the Republican Party of Namibia. They should have tried this much earlier, because today we have become a strong party with a clear vision, and we are gaining support every day,’ he told reporters in the capital.Mudge further denied allegations of mismanagement levelled against him by Smit, who blamed him for the party being about N$460 000 in the red.’Mr Smit … alleges that the RP’s finances are in disarray. He was a member of the Financial Committee and his wife is supposed to do the books of the party, so he is privy to very sensitive information about our finances. The only negative aspect about our finances that he manages to mention, is the fact that we have currently an overdraft of N$450 000. What he failed to mention is the fact that the overdraft at one stage was N$1 million but we managed to reduce it to N$450 000,’ Mudge said.He claimed that neither Smit, nor any of the other councillors, had discussed their grievances with his way of running the RP in the past five years.However, The Namibian is in possession of a letter written to the party president in May 2005 already, where several issues regarding alleged unapproved spending were brought to his attention by then RP Secretary General Carola Engelbrecht.These include a number of party vehicles apparently bought before the 2004 elections, a cheque account opened for daily operations and salaries, the appointment and resignation of a number of staff members, as well as flight tickets to the USA and Germany. All of these transactions were allegedly made by Mudge.Engelbrecht was dismissed after Mudge made claims of racism against her.Commenting on Smit’s challenge to prove the legality of the Khomas Regional Committee, Mudge claimed that Smit himself at one point had co-ordinated this committee’s activities. ‘I find it very strange that when Mr Smit was requested to co-ordinate the activities of the committee, he had no problem with the constitution of the committee, but now all of a sudden he claims the committee is unconstitutional.’I initially wanted to bring the minutes of the meeting, but then I thought, no. Why should I do this? Here they are,’ he said of Smit’s challenge that he provide the minutes of the CE meeting where this committee was established.