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Namibia: Kavetuna Headed for Parliament
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New Era (Windhoek)
15 April 2008
Posted to the web 15 April 2008
John Ekongo
Windhoek
The National Youth Council (NYC) secretary general, Juliet Kavetuna, will be sworn in as a parliamentarian on Thursday.
She was scheduled to be sworn in today, but has to wait for two more days after it emerged that no member of the judiciary was available due to other commitments.
Kavetuna replaces former Minister of Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development, John Pandeni. She will be a backbencher.
Kavetuna came in at position 65 on the party list. She becomes the second secretary general of the youth body to get sea-waved into a seat at the Tintenpalast.
The only other candidate is Deputy Minister of Youth, National Service, Sport and Culture, Pohamba Shifeta.
Kavetuna's departure from the NYC hot seat leaves the position vacant until the youth body's national executive council (NEC) elects a successor.
Should the national executive council agree on a candidate, that candidate becomes the acting secretary general until the next elections at the general youth assembly (GYA).
The only time this method was used was in 2005, when former secretary general, Ralph Blaauw, was roped in from the Swapo Youth League to replace Shifeta who got a nomination during President Hifikepunye Pohamba's maiden political appointments. The Swapo Youth League is affiliated to the NYC.
The other option is for the NYC representative council to propose a candidate in the absence of a general youth assembly - the highest decision making body of the NYC - which takes place every four years.
However, this can only happen if all 26 members of the NEC, 13 representatives of the 13 regional youth forums and one member each from affiliated youth organisations, decide on a candidate during a representative council seating.
The next representative council meeting is scheduled for mid-May. It is not clear whether an extra-ordinary representative council will be summoned.
"It all depends on the NEC," said a highly placed source in the executive committee.
If this happens, chances are high that an election will be held within all the structures of the NYC to choose a replacement candidate.
Well-placed sources, however, told New Era that two candidates have already been identified to replace Kavetuna.
They are touted to be Julius Nyerere Namoloh, employed in the accounts division at the NYC and Mandela Kapere, a youth activist and currently a deputy secretary general of the Pan African Youth Union, based in Algeria.
"It can be either of them," said the source.
Kavetuna was elected at the general youth assembly in December 2005 to replace Blaauw who was controversially linked to the embattled investment company, Avid.
Prior to her introduction into mainstream politics, Kavetuna, a qualified nurse, held the position of Secretary for Health in the Swapo Youth League.
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She was previously employed with the Municipality of Otjiwarongo as a health development officer.
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