RDP splinter faction opens fraud case against party president, deputy
Written by on July 14, 2024
A group supporting former Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) parliamentarian Kandy Nehova yesterday announced that the party has opened a fraud case against its president, Mike Kavekotora, and his deputy, Kennedy Shakupakela.
The case also involves alleged false representation with the intent to commit fraud.
Nehova, at a press conference in Windhoek, said the charges were laid with the police’s crime investigations unit last week.
The former parliamentarian, who claims to be the legitimate party president, said Kavekotora and his deputy were not democratically elected and are not RDP members.
They were expelled from the party about four years ago, he said.
Nehova said when Kavekotora and Shekupakela stood for the party president and vice president positions at the party’s convention in June 2019, they failed to garner the required 51% to be declared party president and vice president.
The party said this does not align with its constitution, and is an attempt to capture the RDP and commit fraud.
Kavekotora amassed 243 votes out of 490 votes (49,59%), while Shekupakela garnered 231 votes (47,2%), Nehova said.
He said the chairperson of the election committee did not order a rerun.
“The legitimate leadership with the central committee was elected in October 2019 at Otjiwarongo,” Nehova said.
The party claimed the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) was informed that Kavekotora and Shekupakela were not legitimately elected.
It said the ECN should be investigated for potential involvement in abetting “the fraudulent actions” of Kavekotora and Shekupakela.
Nehova said the pair, along with party member Nicanor Ndjoze, were expelled from the party in January 2020.
“The party is pursuing criminal action against these individuals, as well as potentially investigating the Electoral Commission of Namibia for their involvement in the fraudulent activity,” he said.
Kavekotora yesterday said responding to Nehova would give legitimacy to “a non-entity and a non-issue”.
“Kandy will not and cannot rise from his political grave that he himself created . . . My concern is that this is in the public domain and may confuse the electorate and the misinformed,” he said.
He said Nehova competed against himself for the RDP presidential position and lost “hopelessly”.
Kavekotora said Nehova accepted his defeat in 2019 and pledged to work with the new elected leaders.
Three months down the line, Nehova started writing lawyers letters to challenge the outcomes of the convention, Kavekotora said.
“We advised him to approach the courts if he felt aggrieved,” he said.
Kavekotora said Nehova eventually went to court and lost several times.
“When the RDP realised Kandy’s motive was to destroy the party, a disciplinary process was initiated that eventually led to the expulsion of Kandi and three others,” he said.
He said Nehova is no longer with the RDP and Amanda Titus, whose name appeared on the inquiry of the statement read by Nehova, has never been in an RDP leadership position and is not an RDP member.
“The Kandys running around like headless chickens is of no effect to the RDP, and the RDP leadership will deal with them and their bosses at an appropriate time,” he said.
Shekupakela was not reachable for comment yesterday.
He did not respond to a text message sent to him at the time of going to print either.
ECN spokesperson Mulauli Siluka did not respond to a text message sent to him yesterday.
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