All eyes on Nujoma, Pohamba as congress clock ticks down

SWAPO’S Central Committee started meeting last night to iron out remaining issues ahead of a watershed extraordinary congress, tentatively scheduled for November 28 to December 2.

Last night’s meeting was expected to con?rm the dates as well as hammer out procedures for nominations and elections at the congress. “It is a normal Central Committee meeting before a congress.We will determine the date for the congress and see what is to be done there,” Swapo Secretary General Ngarikutuke Tjiriange told The Namibian yesterday.He said the CC meeting would consider a report tabled by the Politburo.The report includes, among others, a proposal that first Prime Minister Hage Geingob and Deputy Speaker Doreen Sioka be nominated for the two empty seats in the Politburo.They will replace the late former Speaker of Parliament, Mose Tjitendero, and expelled former Minister Jesaya Nyamu.Tjiriange said nominations for the Swapo leadership would not be entertained at the Central Committee meeting.”For that, the regions will have to come up with the nominations at the congress.That is how our structures work and how they have been working the whole time.The CC can’t impose individuals on the congress,” he said.However, during the last congress, nominations were discussed at Politburo level after party President Sam Nujoma tabled his wish list.The names of President Hifikepunye Pohamba, Hidipo Hamutenya and Nahas Angula were then forwarded to the CC and later to the congress for elections after probably the most undemocratic inner-party election campaign in the history of Swapo.At the congress, a list of 35 n ames was circulated which featured Hamutenya in top spot, a ploy apparently “designed” to oust him and his supporters.For the upcoming congress also, Oshana and Karas have already pronounced their clear candidate for Swapo presidency – they say Nujoma must stay.Although, that did not go down well with Tjiriange, who said the regions had acted outside the party procedures, Nujoma has not publicly rejected the offer.THE POHAMBA CODE In fact, party insiders say Nujoma is likely to remain at the helm of the party come the November extraordinary congress.”What will be at stake are the positions below that.Will President Pohamba stand for re-election? That is the question we are all asking ourselves.Only he and the party’s President know the answer for now,” said one party source.Pohamba’s first term as the leader of Namibia ends in 2009.Sources also expect the Swapo Women’s Council to push for a zebra list and more representation for women.However, Tjiriange said the quota system would not feature prominently at the Central Committee level.”We work within the framework of our law.That (quota system) is something constitutional and only the Congress can deal with it.It can be discussed there.Anybody can raise it.The congress can discuss anything under the sun,” Tjiriange said.The Swapo Women’s Council has started pushing the party’s leadership to change the Constitution so that women make up half of the representatives in top decision-making bodies of Government and in the National Assembly.They want both the Swapo and Namibian Constitutions changed to provide for a quota to achieve gender balance in public institutions and the party’s structures.A resolution was already passed at the 1997 Congress to increase the proportion of women delegates to the party’s congress to up to 50 per cent.Subsequently Nujoma tried to nominate 21 women to the party’s CC but he was told that it was unconstitutional.If Nujoma had had his way, it would have left only 36 vacancies for election to the Central Committee.Many party stalwarts, most of them Ministers at the time, feared they would have lost out to people who would have been “brought in by wheelchair”, to quote an expression widely used by Swapo members.Having failed to get 50 per cent female representation, Nujoma, responding to lobbying by some in the Women’s Council leadership, decided to push for a quota on the Central Committee but once again did not succeed.The Women’s Council Central Committee has agreed that “legal mechanisms have to be set up within the party structures to enable and ensure that more women take up leadership positions at all levels” in Swapo.A decision was taken at the 2002 Congress that future congresses should “consider reserving the first 21 seats” on the Central Committee for “women comrades”.”It is a normal Central Committee meeting before a congress.We will determine the date for the congress and see what is to be done there,” Swapo Secretary General Ngarikutuke Tjiriange told The Namibian yesterday.He said the CC meeting would consider a report tabled by the Politburo.The report includes, among others, a proposal that first Prime Minister Hage Geingob and Deputy Speaker Doreen Sioka be nominated for the two empty seats in the Politburo.They will replace the late former Speaker of Parliament, Mose Tjitendero, and expelled former Minister Jesaya Nyamu.Tjiriange said nominations for the Swapo leadership would not be entertained at the Central Committee meeting.”For that, the regions will have to come up with the nominations at the congress.That is how our structures work and how they have been working the whole time.The CC can’t impose individuals on the congress,” he said.However, during the last congress, nominations were discussed at Politburo level after party President Sam Nujoma tabled his wish list.The names of President Hifikepunye Pohamba, Hidipo Hamutenya and Nahas Angula were then forwarded to the CC and later to the congress for elections after probably the most undemocratic inner-party election campaign in the history of Swapo.At the congress, a list of 35 n ames was circulated which featured Hamutenya in top spot, a ploy apparently “designed” to oust him and his supporters.For the upcoming congress also, Oshana and Karas have already pronounced their clear candidate for Swapo presidency – they say Nujoma must stay.Although, that did not go down well with Tjiriange, who said the regions had acted outside the party procedures, Nujoma has not publicly rejected the offer.THE POHAMBA CODE In fact, party insiders say Nujoma is likely to remain at the helm of the party come the November extraordinary congress.”What will be at stake are the positions below that.Will President Pohamba stand for re-election? That is the question we are all asking ourselves.Only he and the party’s President know the answer for now,” said one party source.Pohamba’s first term as the leader of Namibia ends in 2009.Sources also expect the Swapo Women’s Council to push for a zebra list and more representation for women.However, Tjiriange said the quota system would not feature prominently at the Central Committee level.”We work within the framework of our law.That (quota system) is something constitutional and only the Congress can deal with it.It can be discussed there.Anybody can raise it.The congress can discuss anything under the sun,” Tjiriange said.The Swapo Women’s Council has started pushing the party’s leadership to change the Constitution so that women make up half of the representatives in top decision-making bodies of Government and in the National Assembly.They want both the Swapo and Namibian Constitutions changed to provide for a quota to achieve gender balance in public institutions and the party’s structures.A resolution was already passed at the 1997 Congress to increase the proportion of women delegates to the party’s congress to up to 50 per cent.Subsequently Nujoma tried to nominate 21 women to the party’s CC but he was told that it was unconstitutional.If Nujoma had had his way, it would have left only 36 vacancies for election to the Central Committee.Many party stalwarts, most of them Ministers at the time, feared they would have lost out to people who would have been “brought in by wheelchair”, to quote an expression widely used by Swapo members.Having failed to get 50 per cent female representation, Nujoma, responding to lobbying by some in the Women’s Council leadership, decided to push for a quota on the Central Committee but once again did not succeed.The Women’s Council Central Committee has agreed that “legal mechanisms have to be set up within the party structures to enable and ensure that more women take up leadership positions at all levels” in Swapo.A decision was taken at the 2002 Congress that future congresses should “consider reserving the first 21 seats” on the Central Committee for “women comrades”.