Kuvee Kangueehi
7 October 2008
Windhoek — A legal battle over a cheque worth over N$350 000 involving senior members of the Congress of Democrats (CoD) erupted last week after the vice president of the party, Nora Schimming-Chase, collected the cheque which is part of the State grant paid to political parties without the consent of the rest of the party leadership.
After Schimming-Chase collected the cheque last week on Tuesday, there was a flurry of exchange of letters from the lawyers representing CoD and Schimming-Chase's lawyer.
The legal row cast doubts on whether the party will be able to hold its extraordinary congress, which is scheduled for October 24 to 26 outside Windhoek.
Speaking to New Era, the chairperson of CoD, Tsudao Gurirab, confirmed that Schimming-Chase took the party cheque and the party is trying to get it back.
He noted that the party plans to use the money for the extra ordinary congress. He said unless this happened, the extraordinary congress as ordered by the High Court cannot take place.
"We roughly need N$400000 to host the congress and the cheque the vice president took is the only money in the party's account," said Gurirab.
Gurirab said although Schimming-Chase assured them last Friday that she has not used the money yet, she earlier mooted that she wanted to use the funds to pay for their lawyers' services.
However, a member of the CoD national executive committee (NEC), Moses Katjiuongua, who is a close ally of Schimming-Chase said the latter only collected the cheque from the National Assembly after she consulted the Anti-Corruption Commission, Office of the Ombudsman and Office of the Attorney General.
Katjiuongua said Schimming-Chase was advised by these institutions that following the court order, she was entitled to collect the cheque on behalf of the party.
He noted that one of the reasons why she collected the cheque is because the party president, Ben Ulenga, cannot account for all the cheques he collected since last year in July. The cheques have a value of over N$1,1 million he stated.
Katjiuongua is also sceptical whether the congress will really take place at the end of the month because preparations have not started yet. He said the congress could be postponed to November because the deadline according to the court order is December 17, 2008.
He also complained that Ulenga unilaterally postponed an NEC meeting, which was supposed to take place last weekend because he was visiting the regions.
Gurirab, however, is adamant that the congress will take place if the funds are made available. He said the NEC will meet tomorrow to look at nominations received for the candidates.
The CoD MP said although the regions have not made their nominations yet, indications are that Ulenga will stand against Schimming-Chase for the presidency.
He noted that it is not clear yet who will stand for the other position but said things will become clearer during the coming weeks.
It is not the first time that the official opposition party is fighting over a cheque. Last year, leaders of both factions laid charges of theft against each other.
The extraordinary congress presents the troubled party with an opportunity to redeem itself and unite before the national assembly and presidential elections next year.
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