Swapo will never participate in public debates – Nekongo

Swapo Party Youth League (SPYL) secretary Ephraim Nekongo says the party will never participate in presidential debates.

Nekongo made these remarks on Friday while speaking to the youth of the Kavango East region alongside party vice president and presidential hopeful Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah.

“There are other people that are continuing to call our party leadership for presidential debates. Even if I’m not sanctioned, Swapo will never participate in those debates,” he said.

Nekongo said Swapo is a mass-based political party that has its own structures.

“We have our own way of doing things. We will never participate on any platform that is not a Swapo platform. We are capable and we have the capacity to talk to our people,” he said.

Swapo, alongside the Popular Democratic Movement, the Independent Patriots for Change and the Landless People’s Movement, snubbed the presidential debate hosted by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in May.

Political commentators accused the presidential candidates who skipped the debate of not valuing the importance of levelling with Namibians in an open and transparent manner.

Nekongo claimed that Swapo has the undeniable character of listening to its people and that young people in the party are ready to co-exist with the elders.

“People think that young people must take over. Where there is a young person, there should be wisdom. Where there is wisdom, there must be a woman. Where there is a woman, there must be a man,” he said.

“I want to urge you here that we must not be fooled by those that are running on the road that is built by Swapo and we continue saying Swapo did nothing. As young people, we must not be fooled to be told Swapo has done nothing,” he said.