Africa-Press – Namibia. SECRETARY general of the Swapo-affiliated National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW) Job Muniaro has told the Swapo Party Women’s Council (SPWC) to avoid being bought with money to elect the “wrong leaders” into various party positions.
Muniaro was speaking at a SPWC induction workshop at Outapi on Friday.
He said women should not be “wheelbarrow pushers of the wrong people into positions”.
“People who don’t know Swapo politics and come with a N$10 000 in their pocket tell you ‘ I am the best’. The money is the best, not the person,” he said.
Muniaro said money, not leadership is a problem in the party.
“You can’t lead with money. You can lead with your brain,” he said.
Muniaro told the SPWC to respect, trust and love Swapo.
He urged the women to support and vote for one another.
“The war in your hearts that is only known to you as women is destroying you. You have hatred in your hearts and you protect it with a smile. That smile is called a political smile,” he said.
“Don’t give the key for women to men and expect 50/50 gender representation. Women must be honest with women. Stand for your rights as women and groom yourself,” he said.
Contacted for comment yesterday, Muniaro said his remarks were meant to strengthen the SPWC and to rekindle trust in the party.
“It was to encourage them to vote for the people who will be changing their lives and grow the country’s economy. Nobody should buy themselves into positions, because they may not deliver. Women should not be bought. Leadership is groomed,” he said.
SPWC leader Fransina Kahungu yesterday said she did not hear Muniaro talking about women being bought to elect people into positions.
This is not the first time the use of money to influence outcomes at a congress is condemned.
In November last year, former deputy minister of works and transport James Sankwasa claimed Swapo’s 2017 congress, where president Hage Geingob and his Team Harambee won a landslide victory, was mired in bribery.
Sankwasa said the so-called Fishrot corruption scandal money “did not only cause external damage, but equally internal damage” to Swapo as congress delegates “were paid to vote only for candidates on the green list and not the red list”.
The money allegedly dished out to delegates is believed to be part of N$75 million reportedly paid into the trust accounts of law firms De Klerk, Horn & Coetzee (DHC) Inc, and Sisa Namandje & Co from the National Fishing Corporation of Namibia (Fishcor) to fund Swapo campaigns, including the 2017 elective congress.
During the 2017 elective congress, Geingob received 577 votes, while Jerry Ekandjo got 153, and Nahas Angula 39.
For the vice-president position, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah won with 552 votes, Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana came second with 194 votes, while Helmut Angula got 20 votes.
Secretary general Sophia Shaningwa was victorious with 524 votes, followed by Armas Amukwiyu, who garnered 243 votes.
The late Marco Hausiku won the deputy secretary general position with 540 votes, followed by Petrina Haingura in second place with 118 votes, and Martha Namundjebo-Tilahun in third place with 102 votes.
In 2020, Iivula-Ithana alleged that delegates were bribed, saying the signs were there before and after Swapo’s congress where Geingob was elected as party president.
“One just didn’t know where that money came from. All the signs were there that money was being splashed. We learnt that people were given envelopes with money after the congress,” she said.
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