Christof Maletsky
18 November 2008
A CAMPAIGN has started in the Swapo Party to stop President Hifikepunye Pohamba from standing as the party's presidential candidate during the next general elections.
Also targeted are senior party members like Prime Minister Nahas Angula and Works Minister Helmut Angula.
This has emerged in the fallout between the Swapo Party Youth League and senior party leaders over the controversial Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) compact, aspects of which the SPYL has opposed.
Meanwhile, well-placed sources confirmed yesterday that President Pohamba informed a meeting between the Politburo and SPYL on Friday that he was ready to take the responsibility for the MCA becoming a public bone of contention.
The President is also reported to have pleaded with the SPYL to support the MCA, as Namibia cannot afford to lose the millions of dollars from the US government.
"If he decides to take the blame for others, he must be ready to take the fall also.
He cannot cover certain individuals and expect that all must just go well," said one Swapo source.
Plans have been mooted since the weekend for an extraordinary party congress early next year to decide on the party's presidential candidacy.
"We must know who will go to State House.
It is clear that we can't send him back, though," said another source.
It is believed that the MCA compact is set to sail through the National Assembly after the Prime Minister presents the amended version to the youth leaders this week.
Initially Angula wanted to meet the SPYL yesterday but some members of the Politburo felt that the youth needed time to study the documents properly before they can approve it.
By yesterday afternoon, The Namibian was informed, the SPYL had written a letter to, among others, the Speaker of the National Assembly Theo-Ben Gurirab to raise their concerns about certain issues.
However, other party sources indicated that Prime Minister Angula had informed them that he would table the amended version today for approval by the National Assembly.
The move is a dramatic turn of events after an earlier decision that the debate be postponed and allowed to lapse for re-introduction next year.
While the MCA compact has ostensibly grabbed the headlines for other reasons, it has brought into the open simmering discontent among Swapo youth members about how certain ministers operate.
They feel that the ministers are too distant from the party's head office and do not consult them.
One youth leader said yesterday that if Angula tables the amended version today, the SPYL will wash their hands off it and must not be blamed for any consequences.
He did not specify what type of consequences there might be.
THREATS WIN DAY During the Politburo meeting Works Minister Helmut Angula reportedly threatened the youth with legal action.
The Namibian has it on good authority that Angula produced clippings of all newspaper articles on the MCA agreement which he found defamatory.
SPYL members reportedly threatened to produce evidence of their claims including video and photo material in their possession.
The issue was not taken further.
Yesterday, Swapo Secretary General Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana gave her full backing to the SPYL's actions.
She said there had never been a dispute between the SPYL and top party leaders, only differences of opinion.
"They expressed their opinion on a document.
Their freedom of expression and freedom of speech is guaranteed," she said.
Ithana said the party's caucus at the National Assembly had a re-look at the documents after the SPYL raised their concerns and a study was done.
"The Government and the United States government also met to look at what the SPYL raised and both parties agreed that the youth league was right," she said.
She said Swapo, as a party, never expressed itself on the MCA and it was, therefore, wrong to conclude that the party was at loggerheads with itself.
The MCA debate is expected to continue today.
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