Africa-Press – Namibia. Our mighty Swapo Party will hold its elective congress later this year to elect leadership, which would lead the party towards the 2024 national elections.
Party structures, starting from the sections, branches, districts, and regional and national levels must also be restructured and mandates of the office-bearers renewed.
The roles and functions of our assigned leaders to oversee the restructuring processes and renewal of mandates of the party structures is crucially important to ensure free and fair elections are held in its structures – free from any unconstitutional and un-procedural actions that can breed and fuel dissatisfaction and discontent amongst the members.
We cannot deny the fact that our Swapo Party is no longer the vibrant and dynamic movement it used to be.
It has partly transformed into a political party from the liberation movement.
During Swapo’s tenure as a liberation movement, we, the youth and student political activists of the early and late 1970s, were inspired and motivated by the spirit of political freedom, social justice, dismantling of apartheid laws and freeing our motherland from the yokes of colonialism and oppression.
We were united in our different ethnic, tribal, religious or race domains towards that goal.
We were united under the slogan ‘One Namibia, One Nation’.
At every interaction and gathering, we went through the teachings and political mobilisation programmes, which underscored the values of patriotism, freedom, hard work, the spirit of Ubuntu, unity as well as respect and support of our political leaders.
We felt the warmth and sense of intensity, unity, loyalty, camaraderie and oneness.
We felt the sense of intentional living to contribute to the liberation of our country from the yokes of apartheid and colonialism, oppression and derogatory apartheid system through our political activism and radicalism.
There is also no secret and doubt that the restructuring and renewal process will attract the interest of many political opportunists, who would want to be elected into positions to advance and protect their ulterior motives of economic benefits and advancements of their political ambitions at the cost of serving the members in their respective structures.
In essence, this opportunism is motivated by politics of the belly and political power hunger and greed, meaning people need to create economic and political opportunities for themselves and, hence, parade themselves as the utmost and only capable party cadres to serve the party.
These wolves in the sheep skins are dangerous and detrimental to our party, which is already negatively tainted by corruption scandals and by the alleged involvement of some of our leaders and comrades.
Just ask any member, who has in recent times joined Swapo, why he/she has joined the party.
You would quite easily deduce from the answer you will get that the person has joined the Party because of economic gain (tenders, fishing quotas, acquiring mineral rights, resettlement programme, etc.).
Thus, we have to ensure that aspiring comrades who want to serve in various structures, meet the minimum requirements as set out in our party constitution to avoid infiltration by persons not worth the honour of representing the Swapo Party at various structures of the party as per the provisions of Article IV (C1 & C2) (g), which calls upon every Swapo Party member “to be ever vigilant against infiltration of the ranks of the Party by persons not worth the honour of the Swapo Party membership”.
Against this background, it is important to know the profile of Swapo Party members, who aspire to become office bearers of the party as well as party representatives at government and legislative levels.
Our party is now facing many challenges amidst the changing socio-economic and political climate in the country – and really, we need smart, competent and academically sound leaders, who will lead the members in the sections, branches, regions and national levels.
In sections, we need leaders who will educate members of the party on the knowledge of the Swapo Party’s constitution, political programmes, resolutions, directives and decisions of the party.
The same goes to the branch, district, regional and national levels, where our elected leaders in these structures should ensure and strengthen Party unity, mobilise members, defend, propagate and explain policies and political programmes of the party.
Hence, there is a need for our leaders to know and understand the party constitution, rules and procedures for the election of party office bearers and party representatives at legislative and government levels, and practical implications and implementation thereof.
As we are facing these hurdles, I once again stress that we elect the right people in the leadership in the structures, without considering the slate, faction, region or tribal background of members.
“Let’s go for quality and competency of that comrade to be elected in that structure or position.”
The more we are divided into Swapo along with tribal slate, factional and regional lines, the more we are sinking and losing members – and these are retrogressive tendencies that are against the aims and objectives of our party.
As the time comes closer to the Swapo Party elective congress, division infiltrates the minds of the members – and it is the time when internal dissatisfaction takes over, resulting in the party losing out on some members, who become disgruntled at the way we approach and handle matters by de-campaigning each other through bad means.
I would love to advocate for and support the active participation of our youth in leadership positions in these structures and also to represent our party at the legislative and government levels.
Through their participation and representation, and defending the economic policies and instruments of the Party, they can come forth with robust, revolutionary actions and foresighted progressive ideas to steer the economic development of our country, and help to address and solve socio-economic problems facing our country.
The elected and aspiring youth leaders should be vocal and uncompromising on social evils such as corruption, high unemployment, tribalism, nepotism and unequal allocation of resources to develop regions, etc.
Concerning corruption scandals that have tainted the image of Swapo severely, such as Fishrot or other corruption cases that are known to the public, our youth leaders should not be cowardly quiet and take a firm stance against any corruption.
Any aspiring youth leader, who wishes to serve on the Party structures or represent the party at the legislative and government levels, and who is implicated in any corruption or is holding a criminal record should not contest for any position.
We want educated, competent youth and technocrats in our party structures – because with education and knowledge comes rational and critical thinking as well as the ability to choose between beneficial and detrimental decisions.
Only educated youth will serve the Party well in this regard.
Our youthful leaders must match and compete against the opposition members who provide exciting, resourceful, robust and dynamic debates in the parliament while our party shows mediocrity and is, in most cases, out-smarted and out-debated.
Even our President once raised this concern, and our elderly and tired politicians should make way for the youth leaders, as they now look irrelevant to the current political landscape, which is changing.
Constitutionally, parliamentarians control the Namibian destiny, as a country, through the laws they make, and crafting and drafting of these laws requires astute minds and technocrats – and our youth should live up to and respond to this challenging call.
The elders of the party liberated the country politically, and their chapter has been closed.
Now, the economic freedom and social upliftment and progression of the masses are still to be achieved, and our youth must now be at the forefront of crafting and implementing policies and progress that would address issues such as unemployment, poverty, poor housing, water and sanitation, landlessness, etc.
When we restructure and renew the mandate of our party office bearers, we want leaders who will reinvigorate the party from the section, branch, district, regional and national levels.
We want leaders who will create and lead a sense of unity and comradeship among all members, irrespective of their tribe or race.
Leaders who will rally members through Swapo general meetings that we used to have in the 1970s and 1980s through Swapo braais, where you could feel the spirit and unity of Swapo members.
We want leaders who will drive membership mobilisation campaigns since we have lost many members to the opposition parties.
We want leaders who will serve the interest of the party, and not theirs – and who will implement the provisions in the party constitution and rules and procedures correctly, and to the latter and spirit without any fear or favour, prejudice and impartially.
It is commonly known that our current leaders were given the mandate to serve the masses – but some of them are only serving themselves, their families and their close friends and cronies through alleged corrupt deals.
Our assigned national leaders to the regions live in denial and show an apathetic attitude, and do not promptly and decisively react and deal with issues and problems brought up by the members in the lower structures of our Party.
They are completely out of touch with realities in the constituency, towns and villages, where critical thinking members are deliberately excluded, sidelined and frustrated by their leaders.
During this restructuring and renewal exercise, our party must get rid of such leaders who are doing much harm to the party.
This is the time to stop blame-gaming, finger-pointing and denials, defending the wrongs and start doing the right things right now.
Tribalism and slate politics must be done away with in our party.
Some of our youth harbouring tribalistic traits should never be considered in leadership positions and structures of the Party because they are the enemies of the party unity.
In conclusion, the time has come for everyone in this Party to re-invent, refocus, redirect, and re-invigorate himself or herself towards the goal of making the Swapo Party people’s party that had been loved so much and had been even admired and envied by the opposition because of its popularity and vibrancy.
Let’s defend and protect our party from inside and outside against enemies that are hell-bent to tarnish the image of the party.
Let us root out corrupt members that are looting the party and restore the hope and trust of our people.
For More News And Analysis About Namibia Follow Africa-Press
