Nekongo: Swapo will win in November

Swapo Party Youth League (SPYL) secretary Ephraim Nekongo says his party will comfortably win the upcoming presidential and National Assembly elections.

Swapo will not suffer the same fate as South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC), which failed to form a government after last month’s election.
The ANC is now looking to form a coalition government with other parties.

In an interview with Desert Radio on Wednesday, Nekongo said Swapo presidential candidate Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has the qualities to take Namibia to greater heights.

“Swapo for the first time decided to go for a female candidate. On its own it’s a different dynamic.

“Women want to test leadership. We are all eager to see how it turns out. Even the opposition knows that come November, Swapo is going to win,” he said.

Nekongo said South Africa and Namibia have different political dynamics. He said in South Africa the parliament elects the president, while in Namibia the public does so.

‘SIBLINGS’

Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) member Dirk Conradie told Desert Radio the two countries are siblings with historic ties between the ANC and Swapo, hence what happened to the ANC would be reflected in Namibia’s upcoming national elections.

“We were part of South Africa for a long time. Our economies are so intertwined, and we have people who have families on both sides. Many Namibian professionals studied there.”

Conradie said Swapo’s candidate is no match for Itula, as she has been part of a failed system. He, however, admitted that Nandi-Ndaitwah is corruption free.

“It’s not the candidate who is wrong, it’s the setting that’s wrong,” he said.

Meanwhile, Nekongo claimed Swapo is the country’s only hope.

Dirk Conradie

‘NO OTHER PARTY’

“We do not have a political party in Namibia with backbone, apart from Swapo. On that accord people won’t abandon their party and leave it unvoted,” he says.

He said the party’s manifesto addresses social issues affecting Namibians.

“We want to politicise youth unemployment, which cannot be politicised. The young people know, and everyone knows there is no other party that can lead Namibia at the moment,” Nekongo said.

He said the Swapo-led government is trying to ease the burden of unemployment.

“We empower the Namibian child to go to school, we pay Namibia Students Financial Assistance Fund to make sure the universities are paid for our kids,” he said.

Nekongo said Swapo is focusing on restructuring the economy to create much-needed employment, especially for young people.

“In 1990, the population was small, that’s why employment was there, now the population has grown,” he said.

Conradie said Swapo would fall because it has not done something tangible to convince the youth to vote for it for years.

“The country had hopes and expectations in 2014. We thought things would change from that election year, but we all got surprised about how things changed in 2019 – a fall from 86% to 56%,” he said.

Conradie said Namibian young people will vote for change.

“We do not have a Democratic Alliance in Namibia, we have the IPC. We are guaranteed 35 seats already,” he said.

VOTER APATHY

Nekongo attributed 2019’s poor Swapo performance to party members who did not go to the polls.

“As a party we had our own internal issues, which I believe are known by everyone, and we’ve moved past that,” he said.

He said IPC presidential candidate Panduleni Itula does not have the experience to lead the country.

“ . . . an ordinary person who just got up and started running, and thought he could run the country. You can’t run when you don’t even run a community meeting or a village,” Nekongo said.

Political analyst Ndumba Kamwanyah yesterday said: “Yes, their candidate being a female is a factor, and she seems to be embraced by most party members, though there are court cases by those who do not agree.” He said Swapo faces the same variables that cost the ANC a victory: unemployment, corruption and a lack of service delivery.

“If they want to win, they have to make sure they up their campaign in urban areas,” he said.

He said if the youth and educated people register and vote, Swapo would perform poorly.

Ndumba Kamwanyah

INFIGHTING

Kamwanyah said infighting among the oppositions would, however, affect their performance.

“Namibia has too many political parties and those who want to run independently, which will force them to share the votes,” he said.
He said Itula would also contribute to Swapo’s poor performance.

Commenting on the issue, political scientist Rui Tyitende says Nandi-Ndaitwah has been presented as the “integrity candidate” and a “tried and tested Swapo cadre”.

“That kind of description says nothing about the solutions she will provide to rescue Namibians from the deep-rooted problems of unemployment, structural poverty and widening inequality manufactured by a government she was part of for the last 34 years.

“Instead, she needs to start providing Namibians with a vision in terms of a clear development plan. For example, what concrete plans does she have to tackle unemployment, food insecurity and housing?

“Whether Swapo fields a donkey, a hyena, a man, or a woman ought to be immaterial. The focus should be on the competence and calibre of the candidate, not their gender,” he says.

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