CONSTRUCTION work has started on a site where the Swapo Party intends to build its new N$730 million headquarters in Windhoek.
Construction vehicles and other earthmoving vehicles were yesterday clearing the area where the planned eight-floor building will stand.
Last month, the ruling party awarded a contract worth N$730 million to a Chinese company – Unik Construction – to upgrade its headquarters.
The party wants the headquarters, opposite the Katutura Intermediate State Hospital along Independence Avenue in Windhoek, to be a modern office complex that will also have a 170-vehicle parking lot.
The estimated N$730 million cost of the building has ballooned from the initial valuation of N$400 million made when the plan was announced by party secretary general Sophia Shaningwa last year.
This upgrade has come under fire from critics and some former leaders of the party, including former secretary general Pendukeni Ivula-Iithana, who said the deal could compromise party leaders in future.
Other critics include research associate at the Institute for Public Policy Research, Frederico Links, who raised concerns over the possible influence the Chinese government might have in the governance of this country if it funds the project on behalf of the ruling party.
Links said the transaction was “totally unacceptable”.
The ruling party is partly funded by its members through monthly subscriptions.
Shaningwa has refused to give any details on the deal.
Although the ruling party has been secretive about how it will fund the construction of this project, understands that the Chinese government will provide the money because the ruling party does not have it.
Until now, no Swapo leader has come out to clear the air about the project and the speculation around borrowing money from China.
Chinese ambassador to Namibia, Zhang Yiming, however, said at a media briefing in Windhoek last week that his government was not involved in the transaction.
Zhang said claims of China’s involvement in the construction of the ruling party’s headquarters was being politicised because of national elections to be held this year.
“It is very interesting, always in this country during election time, China always makes headlines in local media. We are always targeted, I don’t know why,” he stated.
He said although the company which got the contract is Chinese-owned, it does not mean that their government was involved as well.
His country respects its foreign policy stance of no interference in Namibia’s domestic affairs, Zhang said, adding that he was aware that the construction of the ruling party’s headquarters has been in the pipeline “for a few years, and I have seen the advertisement in the newspaper”.
“I just want to put it clearly that it has nothing to do with us [Chinese]. No way, it is our clear-cut foreign policy not to interfere. I don’t even know the details. It is against our policy to offer any support to any political party,” the ambassador explained further.
