Former mayor of Keetmanshoop in the ||Kharas region Melody Swartbooi says she remains a ‘proud’ member of the Landless People’s Movement (LPM) despite being sacked as mayor and recalled from the town council by the party.
She made the remarks to The Namibian on Monday.
Swartbooi was fielded as an LPM candidate for local authority public office during the 2025 regional council and local authority elections in which the party secured seats.
“Walking away is not an option for me, therefore, I felt my party leaders could have spoken to me and corrected me where they felt my behaviour or conduct was unbecoming. That’s the relationship we had.
So until they tell me I am expelled from the party I will remain an LPM,” she said.
LPM spokesperson Lifazala Simataa says after the recall the former mayor will remain an ordinary member of the party.
“Melody is not suspended nor expelled. She remains an ordinary member,” he says.
The former mayor says she was a frontline soldier among the youth and elderly at Keetmanshoop.
She also says she led a 2023 Keetmanshoop Rural Constituency by-election campaign which the party won.
“I have invested the past seven years of my life into this party to lay a firm foundation,” she says.
No reasons were provided by LPM for Swartbooi’s withdrawal.
LPM leader Bernadus Swartbooi on Sunday likened the chaos that broke out during the party’s disrupted public meeting at Keetmanshoop to the way the council was run under the former mayor’s leadership.
“Can you see this chaos here? This is how the municipality was run for the past six months. Can you see now.
These people are useless. They are the ones that wasted the time of the party over the past five years.
Today the Lord has exposed the enemies of LPM that are within LPM. All of them will be expelled,” Bernadus said as the meeting was disrupted.
