Africa-Press – Namibia. PARTIES in the Windhoek coalition have called out Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) leader Panduleni Itula for allegedly disrespecting the terms of the coalition agreement and clandestinely negotiating with political parties to entice them to join the coalition.
The parties are particularly aggrieved by news that Itula has been in negotiations with the Landless People’s Movement (LPM) and has already drafted a framework to join the coalition without their knowledge.
LPM, which occupies two seats on the Windhoek council, 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 specific positions on the council. The parties made their grievances known to Itula in a letter sent to him yesterday.
“We have no principle problem of any sort to work with LPM, but will not accept the dictatorial tendencies by yourself to make framework agreements without informing us [about] the content thereof and your denial in this matter is disappointing … clearly there is a motive by yourself and IPC to discredit the mayor [Amupanda],” the parties said.
“To us, the residents of Windhoek should be central in the coalition and not personal preferences, squabbles and posturing. For these principles, we are even prepared to sit in the opposition benches. Positions are the least of our concerns,” the parties said.
The Windhoek coalition was formed between the IPC, the Affirmative Repositioning movement (AR) with two seats, the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) and National Unity Democratic Organisation (Nudo), which won one seat each.
AR leader Job Amupanda leads the coalition as its first mayor until annual council elections next month. The parties in the Windhoek coalition met last week to strategise for the upcoming council election next month.
Although the positions including that of mayor, deputy mayor and chairperson of the management committee were to be rotated among coalition partners, parties at last week’s meeting (apart from IPC) agreed to retain the status quo.
The IPC has, however, rejected this consensus, although the party indicated that it was not putting up a candidate for the position of mayor. Sources say Itula does not want current mayor Job Amupanda to be retained because he did not conduct himself as a coalition mayor but rather advanced an AR agenda over the past 11 months.
According to sources, Itula is therefore pushing for LPM to join the coalition so that one of their councillors takes over as mayor. ‘WEAK ITULA’ At a press conference yesterday, Amupanda attacked Itula for his over-involvement in the affairs of the council
Amupanda was particularly unhappy with Itula’s constant restraining of IPC councillors. Amupanda also said Itula was obsessed with him, that is why the IPC leader has been overinvolved in the council. Amupanda pointed out that Itula does not have the right to determine what other parties in the coalition do.
“There is no president of the coalition. You are not the alpha and omega of the coalition. If councillors are not restrained, there are some directives to prevent councillors from participating in meetings,” Amupanda said.
Amupanda said he was not interested in getting into personal fights with Itula, who he described as having a “weak political immune system”. When contacted for comment yesterday, Itula said: “We must always respect the dignity of the aggrieved for the hurt is in their perception of deeds of others and not in the deeds”.
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