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Namibia: Swapo Keeps Its Distance in Zim Matters
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New Era (Windhoek)
8 April 2008
Posted to the web 8 April 2008
Kuvee Kangueehi
Windhoek
The Swapo Party secretary for information and mobilisation, Jerry Ekandjo, says the current political developments in Zimbabwe are internal matters for that country and the Swapo Party and its government will not get involved.
Addressing a press conference in the capital yesterday, Ekandjo said the party will not get involved because it will not allow another country to involve itself in the internal matters of Namibia.
He added that the results are not even out and thus he was not in any position to comment on the election stalemate in Zimbabwe.
Ekandjo said the Swapo Party would leave the political problems to the Zimbabweans to resolve.
Ekandjo strongly reacted to accusations made by the interim president of Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP), Hidipo Hamutenya, regarding the recent elections at Eenhana.
Last week Hamutenya said elections were not free and fair and accused the Swapo Party of intimidation and abusing State resources and infrastructure.
Ekandjo said Hamutenya has been part and parcel of Namibian's elections from the beginning until now and had never protested about the conduct of Swapo throughout the time that he was in the Swapo Party and Government.
He took a swipe at Hamutenya, saying the accusations he made are lies, distortions, manipulation and outright cowardice.
"People in the Swapo Party consider him a self-centred sellout element striving for destruction of progress that has been achieved during the 18 years of independence, all for Hamutenya's selfish gain and self-gratification."
Ekandjo, who is the first senior Swapo Party member to make a strong attack against the RDP leader, said Hamutenya was one of the architects of the laws enacted in Parliament to guide elections and now has found it convenient to play double standards when it suits him. Ekandjo added that Namibia has a vibrant, genuine and independent judiciary system and challenged Hamutenya to take the legal route if he feels that irregularities and crime was committed during the elections.
"If Hamutenya is genuine with his accusations, he must come clean and substantiate all his allegations with details of the resources and infrastructure used."
Ekandjo said RDP hit a dead end before it was conceived and urged "the people who have fallen to the whims of the Judas Iscariot in the RDP to make a U-turn and return to Swapo Party".
He added that the Eenhana Constituency election is clear testimony of the writing on the wall that the people of Namibia will not associate themselves with groups such as the RDP.
Ekandjo charged that Hamutenya's grudges against members of the Swapo Party for not electing him compelled him to abandon the party to form an ill-conceived project, which has "neither basis nor a business plan and full of false promises".
He noted that the RDP did not work hard enough to gain any votes and most of the people that attended the RDP rally in Eenhana were not from the constituency.
"They only held one meeting at Eenhana and only 20 people were from Eenhana and most of the people were not eligible to vote."
Meanwhile, Ekandjo is confident that the Swapo Party can win the Omuthiya local authority elections.
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He noted that the Swapo Party has structures already in place in Omuthiya and the party has started campaigning at the town.
He revealed that the secretary general of the party, Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana, last weekend addressed a rally at Omuthiya and the campaign is focussed on the youth as most of the elders belong to the party already.
No date has been set yet for the Omuthiya local authority elections, which were called off end of February.
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