110% election victory for Swapo: Haingura

THE ruling Swapo Party should garner no less than 110 per cent of the votes in the upcoming national elections, said Petrina Haingura, Secretary General of the Swapo Women’s Council, on Saturday.

Haingura was speaking at the opening of the Council’s Central Committee (CC) meeting, which was funded by Germany’s Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES). ‘We will work as a team to achieve a 110 per cent victory for Swapo in November. We are not scared – we will fight anybody!’ a fired-up Haingura told the approximately 30 women present. Haingura wore a mitre-shaped hat in Swapo colours. ‘Today I almost look like a Pope meeting here with my Cardinals,’ Haingura – a Catholic – added, drawing strong applause from her comrades, some of whom wore similar headgear. The CC meeting was convened to discuss reports on activities of the SPWC in 2008. ‘We are the mothers of the nation and we must work hard to curb alcohol abuse, poverty, baby dumping and domestic violence,’ said Haingura, who is also the Deputy Health Minister. ‘We need new approaches to empower women, especially in rural areas and in entrepreneurship, and work for a 50 per cent gender balance in Swapo leadership and in (Government) institutions.’Swapo Vice president and Trade and Industry Minister Hage Geingob, who opened the meeting after having delayed it by 90 minutes, said Government would start an SME bank to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) flourish because they create a lot of jobs, especially for women.He criticised opposition politicians who ‘felt threatened’ by Swapo’s slogans this year to garner 100 or even 110 per cent of votes in the elections. ‘This does not threaten democracy at all. We are a united country, inclusive of all ethnic groups, in our drive to build the country,’ he said. ‘If an ethnic group in an African country feels excluded, that can cause problems,’ Geingob emphasised.’After elections [in November] we will say it is a Swapo government and everything in Namibia is the responsibility of the Swapo government.’The one-day meeting ended on Saturday night.