Swapo wants its twothirds majority back
… as Nekongo calls for calm
RUNDU/OMUTHIYA –Swapo secretary general Sophia Shaningwa says the ruling party wants to reclaim the two-thirds majority in the National Assembly that it lost during the 2019 general elections.
Shaningwa made these remarks at a mini-Swapo rally held at Tuhingireni informal settlement last Wednesday.
Swapo held a two-thirds majority since the 1994 elections, but lost that in 2019. That year, the ruling party garnered 63 seats, leaving 33 seats to be shared among the opposition political parties.
Swapo lost 14 seats from the 77 seats it obtained during the 2014 elections. “In terms of support to the Swapo Party during the elections, the Kavango regions always come second after the four O-regions to make sure we win,” Shaningwa said.
She said, even Founding President Sam Nujoma, who served three terms as the first president of the country, knew that the Kavango regions never failed in leading the party to victory.
“The Kavango regions are the biggest supporters of our party, Swapo,” Shaningwa said. She said the purpose of her visit was to prepare party members and eligible voters to register on 3 June 2024 for the Presidential and National Elections on 27 November 2024, and to vote for the Swapo Party and its presidential candidate Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah. She called on party leaders in the region to mobilise people from constituency to constituency and district to district for the sake of the party and its presidential candidate. Meanwhile, Shaningwa called for the revival of all green schemes in the Kavango East and West to feed the people of the regions.
“A nation should be able to feed itself. We cannot go and buy food from countries like India and China,” she stated. Locals must also be employed to work in the green schemes for the people to feed themselves, she added.
“Nandi-Ndaitwah as Vice President of the country visited the green schemes last month, after which a collective decision was taken to revive the green schemes by pumping more money into them,” Shaningwa said.
Calm
Meanwhile, former PLAN commander and Swapo Party Elders’ Council Oshikoto regional secretary Marx Nekongo urged party members not to panic over opposition parties’ campaigns in the region.
While Shaningwa was in Tuhungireni, Nekongo was in Omuthiya’s Kaniita location, where he appealed to party loyalists not to join other political parties ahead of this year’s national elections in November.
He said Swapo has done a lot of wonderful things, and will still do great things for this country. “If we join political parties, we will offend the founding father, Dr Sam Nujoma, and former president Hifikepunye Pohamba,” said Nekongo.
He said they had been challenged by backstabbers and pretenders before, but that did not demoralise them. “As a responsible nation, let us vote for comrade Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah as the presidential candidate for the country,” said Nekongo. He further assured the residents of Oshikoto that Swapo will try by all means to solve the regional water challenges they have been facing. “People should not give up on the party; they should continue striving while Swapo finds a solution to their problems,” he said. He added that Swapo has put Namibia on the map by being recognised as a country with great roads in Africa.
Swapo’s Oshikoto regional mobiliser Saara Shikokola said they are trying to engage the public to find out their challenges so the party can solve them. “We know the public has many challenges such as drought, hunger, domestic violence and harassment,” said Shikokola.
She added that they just do not want to be mobilising people to join Swapo but also to advise and help people in need.