LPM, Nudo are bedfellows – Swartbooi
Landless People’s Movement (LPM) leader Bernadus Swartbooi said his party and the National Unity Democratic Organisation (Nudo) are warmly in bed, suggesting a possible coalition on the cards.
Swartbooi, however, denied that his party was in bed with the ruling Swapo.
“I want to urge any political party not to throw their weight around. Be careful; we need everyone on board. We have good talks. We are definitely in a warm bed so far with Nudo. But with Swapo, there have not been any contacts. Surely, we are not in bed with Swapo. We are not going in any coalition with Swapo. Let’s not balloon ordinary things that are said for the interest of the people,” Swartbooi said.
He was, however, quick to add LPM was willing to work with Swapo for the interest of all Namibians and important issues for the progress of the country.
“We do not take recognition or ourselves lightly. There is no way we can subject ourselves to instances where people forget that we have a balance of power that we bring to the table. And that should be appreciated by anyone who wants to bargain for things. We cannot have won two regions, won local authorities, represented in the National Assembly going to National Council and subject ourselves to lose type of talks that we will support this and that person,” Swartbooi remarked.
The LPM were among the big winners in the just-ended regional council and local authority elections, after securing the majority of seats in both the //Kharas and Hardap regions. The party performed relatively well in Khomas and Erongo.
The party secured two seats on the Windhoek city council, along with the Affirmative Repositioning movement, while the Independent Patriots for Change scooped four seats and Swapo five.
The Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) and Nudo won a seat each.
According to Swartbooi, AR leaders have been offering good ideas and they are willing to work with them. He said IPC, PDM and AR met to discuss a possible coalition. Swartbooi further said LPM agreed with IPC, the Swakopmund Ratepayers’ Association and the United Democratic Front (UDF) for the formula of the coalition, which saw Louisa Kavita elected Swakopmund mayor yesterday.
“These things of serious discussion being reduced to who is going to be mayor or chairperson is a dangerous road that has prevented political parties before from working together. I would have thought that none has come up and said I want to be this, and I want to be that. Unfortunately, that was done. But for Job [Amupanda], we have good relations with him. He is our young brother. We are in serious business of transforming the City of Windhoek and transforming society,” he noted.
Swartbooi said LPM will do land audits to establish how land was “snatched up mafia-style by the so-called City of Windhoek land barons and their proxies in the so-called 99-year lease that needs to be revisited and reviewed”.
With LPM, they promise to eliminate the mushrooming of shacks for proper housing structures, saying they do not want to see another poor family evicted from vacant land to make way for lustful and greedy estate developers.
“Our people must see that change in the next four years so that they do not go back to Swapo like a substance abuser who needs a fix. We want to warn Swapo and its handlers at this juncture that the threats made by its leadership that it will withhold development funds from regions where Swapo lost its mandate will not be taken lightly. If they think that they will hold the whole country at ransom because they lost their popularity due to own useless and contemptible mafia-style of governance, they have another thing coming,” he threatened.
He said LPM will leave no stone unturned to make sure those who deliberately withhold development money are punished – and if need be, dismissed from their posts.