Africa-Press – Namibia. SWAPO secretary general Sophia Shaningwa has asked newly appointed think tank members to avoid rhetoric by using their expertise and “big brains” to provide alternative solutions to the crisis the party currently finds itself in.
Shaningwa on Saturday at an induction workshop for Swapo’s new think tank members in Windhoek said the party is currently driving in reverse gear, and the public’s criticism on poor service delivery, corruption, and disunity is worsening the situation.
She said these issues are among the reasons why voters “punished” Swapo in the 2019 presidential and National Assembly elections, as well as last year’s regional council and local authority elections in which Swapo saw its dominance drastically reduced.
“Swapo has received criticism over disunity. Can we survive with disunity among ourselves? How do we rehabilitate ourselves as a Swapo family? Do we gain anything if we continue with disunity? You have to look at those types of things, and provide a way forward. You have to deliver,” she said.
Among the various topics discussed at the workshop were the possible challenges and threats the party and its presidential candidate would face in the presidential and National Assembly elections of 2024.
Swapo’s new think tank also discussed issues related to division in the party, succession, corruption and dishonesty, as well as the generation gap. DISCARDED ASSETS
To demonstrate her attempt to unite the party, Shaningwa on Saturday invited former Swapo information secretary Helmut Angula, who belonged to a rival faction, ‘Team Swapo’, at the 2017 elective congress.
Angula’s ‘Team Swapo’ comprised former minister of youth and sport Jerry Ekandjo, former home affairs minister Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana, and former prime minister Nahas Angula.
These individuals lost to president Hage Geingob’s ‘Team Harambee’ at the congress. Geingob shortly therafter removed Ekandjo and Iivula-Ithana from their ministerial positions.
On Saturday Helmut Angula and were invited, Swapo veteran Libertina Amathila to make a presentation at the new think tank workshop. Shaningwa said the move to invite Angula was meant to correct the “mistake” the leadership has made to let go of the party’s intellectual assets.
“That is a mistake we cannot afford. Therefore all the brain assets will be called back to do justice for the survival of our party,” she said. She told think tank members to accommodate Angula and Amathila, learn from them, and “take up their guns to move forward”.
“We are not interested in vocabulary contestation. We should deliver. We must therefore devise strategies to win back the hearts and the minds of the electorate. We must create and instil hope in the current and future generations,” she said.
New chairperson Andrew Niikondo at the event said Namibia is becoming culturally and morally bankrupt with people as young as 15 years insulting anyone.
Niikondo said the new think tank will therefore provide evidence-based advice to Swapo on how to deal with this and other issues such as cultural degradation, land, agriculture, and elections.
