PRESIDENT Hage Geingob's announcement to stay on as ruling party leader until 2027 could create two centres of power if deputy prime minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaiwah wins the next presidential elections set for 2024.
The Presidency announced on Wednesday that Geingob would not step down in two years' time as initially envisioned.
"President Geingob has since decided that he will fully serve his five-year constitutional term as the party president until the eighth congress," Geingob's spokesperson, Alfredo Hengari, said in a media statement.
Geingob's latest move contradicts his public stance five years ago, which helped him retain Swapo's presidency in 2017.
At the time, Geingob said Namibia should not have two centres of power, branding it as "hostile and unfriendly".
He said it would "only cause division and confusion".
Now, Geingob has made a massive about-turn.
He is pushing for a scenario that will allow him to retain ruling party control after his state presidency ends in March 2025.
Geingob's announcement has been met with mixed reactions.
Former deputy minister of works and transport Sankwasa James Sankwasa says when Pohamba stepped down as Swapo president in 2015, Geingob became acting Swapo president until the next congress in 2017.
"Why can't it be done now under Nandi-Ndaitwah? Why curtail her ability to be allowed to manage both the party and the government?" he asks.
Sankwasa wants to know why Geingob made himself available for nomination and election as sole candidate for party president.
"There are so many questions that remain unanswered," he says.
Former Tsumeb councillor and staunch Geingob supporter Nico Kaiyamo says if Swapo wants to promote genuine unity, party members should not support two centres of power.
"In 2017 under the mantra of the Harambee team, we denounced two centres of power," Kaiyamo says.
Political commentator Ndumba Kamwanyah says: "Geingob himself is one of the architects of one centre of power, of which he was a beneficiary in 2017."
"The question is: What has changed now?" he says.
Political analyst Graham Hopwood says Geingob's decision to keep his position as Swapo president until 2027 implies he wants to maintain his influence in the party and protect his legacy beyond 2025.
"Some of the initiatives he started in his current term will only see major progress after he leaves office, such as green hydrogen, so retaining the party presidency gives him some influence on the future direction of the government and party," he says.
Swapo secretary general Sophia Shaningwa says she believes Geingob's initial announcement that he would step down in 2024 was miscommunicated.
"Geingob is a man of his word. The decision for Swapo not to allow a contest against president Geingob was deliberated and agreed upon on several occasions both by the politburo and central committee," Shaningwa told The Namibian yesterday.
ABOUT-TURN
At Swapo's congress last month, Geingob said he would step down in 2024 to allow his successor to occupy both positions of party and state president.
At the time Geingob said the party would hold an extraordinary election to elect someone "who will hold the flag of the party high".
This was interpreted as that the president was pushing for a different Swapo candidate to replace him as party president while preventing Nandi-Ndaitwah from ascending to the presidency.
Hengari said suggestions that Geingob intended to call an extraordinary congress to block Nandi-Ndaitwah from becoming the party's presidential candidate for 2024 elections are "malicious propagation of lies aimed at creating a divisive narrative within Swapo".
He said Geingob's mentioning of an extraordinary congress referred to the possibility of giving the party's presidential powers to Nandi-Ndaitwah through the extraordinary congress.
Hengari said following Pohamba's stepping down as party president in April 2015, only a few senior Swapo members and members of the central committee stood up against the fact that despite Geingob's endorsement by Pohamba and him being a sitting president in 2017, Geingob was "challenged and humiliated".
He said Geingob will support Nandi-Ndaitwah as Swapo's presidential candidate in 2024 while serving as the vice president of the party - as was the case with Geingob himself.
Hengari said: "The president of the party was elected for a five-year term and he will oblige. The vice president is the champion of the party for the 2024 presidential elections."
TWO MASTERS
The concept of two centres of power is not new.
Former president Sam Nujoma served as party president from 2004 to 2007.
Pohamba was state president from 2005 to 2015. He then passed the presidency on to Geingob in 2015 to allow the former prime minister political gravitas to run the party.
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The calls for two centres of power were reignited in 2017 after former youth minister Jerry Ekandjo and former prime minister Nahas Angula challenged Geingob for the Swapo presidency.
Ekandjo's supporters at the time wanted the former youth minister to run the party at its Windhoek headquarters while Geingob ran the country as state president.
At the time, Ekandjo said two centres of power concept is not new in Swapo.
However, the then Swapo women's council secretary, Eunice Ipinge, sided with Geingob against Ekandjo and his faction.
"We must give both powers to Hage [Geingob]; he never even ruled for a five-year term as party president," Ipinge said at the time.
Iipinge yesterday said two centres of power will cause confusion within the party.
"I feel it's not a good practice within the party, but I am not saying what the president said is wrong," Iipinge said.
Another wing that supported Geingob's one centre of power was the Swapo Party Youth League (SPYL).
SPYL secretary Ephraim Nekongo has since jumped the president's camp in favour of Nandi-Ndaitwah's faction.
He yesterday said: "We have to respect his position, and I think that's a discussion for next year. We are now in Christmas mood."
