Africa-Press – Namibia. TALKS are at an advanced stage for the Landless People’s Movement (LPM) to join the coalition of parties governing the Windhoek municipal council.
The LPM failed to join the coalition after the party’s representatives abandoned the negotiations held in December last year due to differences regarding which party needed to occupy what position on the council.
Throughout the course of this year, the LPM has been critical of how the parties in the Windhoek coalition have conducted their business. Despite this, Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) leader Panduleni Itula yesterday said his party has invited the LPM to join the coalition.
Itula did not disclose further details regarding IPC-LPM coalition talks. The coalition parties are said to have met last week to strategise on which party would occupy what position at the next Windhoek council elections next month.
However, the issue of the LPM joining the coalition was not part of the discussion, sources say. Last week’s meeting discussed the progress and challenges the coalition has encountered since it was established.
The Windhoek coalition was formed between the IPC, the Affirmative Repositioning movement (AR) with two seats, and the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) and National Unity Democratic Organisation (Nudo), which won one seat each.
The LPM occupies two seats on the Windhoek council. AR leader Job Amupanda leads the coalition as its first mayor until the annual council elections next month.
Unless re-elected next month, Amupanda’s tenure as mayor will come to an end this month. It is, however, not clear if the IPC will stay with the current coalition or form a new coalition with the LPM and other potential suitors.
Itula did not disclose further details regarding talks with the LPM. However, LPM leader Bernadus Swartbooi last week confirmed his party was negotiating with the IPC to join the coalition.
Swartbooi said there was a good understanding between the LPM and the IPC, and that the two parties have already drafted a framework on key issues they agree on.
Swartbooi, however, said his party would not tolerate the restraining of councillors by coalition partners “when decisions of a serious nature have to be taken”. He said his party would also not tolerate a scenario where one party makes all the decisions in the coalition at the expense of others.
“We have been in talks with the IPC over a coalition. We have drafted a framework around which we hope to workshop. There is goodwill with each other, and we do not want Lutombi to be the CEO,” Swartbooi said.
There are talks that some coalition parties are working on a strategy to boot the AR out of the coalition. UNFAZED AR spokesperson Simon Amunime yesterday said they were not moved by talks of the LPM joining the coalition.
He said if the LPM was interested in joining the coalition, the party could have submitted a formal application to join, which should be known by all coalition partners.
Any decision to be taken regarding the affairs of the coalition would either be taken by consensus or through a vote, Amunime said. He said the AR does not take the IPC-LPM talks seriously, because the “IPC does not own the coalition”.
“They are just a party to the coalition. The coalition constitutes four parties, and any arrangement between the LPM and the IPC is none of our business and we are not interested.
“The coalition is intact. We cannot ban anyone from talking to anyone. As a party to this coalition, we have not received an application from any entity to join the coalition,” he said.
He added that at last week’s meeting, coalition partners were not briefed on LPM-IPC talks. He said the IPC was confronted about talks with “any other entity, which the party denied”.
“I don’t know if it is cowardice, but they denied it.” Amunime also rejected assumptions that the AR was in talks with Swapo to form a coalition.
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