Ekandjo dashes Dax’s hopes

LOCAL Government Minister Jerry Ekandjo has vowed not to cave in to demands by axed Rehoboth mayor George Dax’s supporters to reinstate him.
Dax supporters recently took to the streets in protest against his removal as mayor of the town.

Ekandjo, who is also the Swapo national leader assigned to the town, said on Tuesday that the demonstrators had no right to do so. ‘Those demonstrating are wrong,’ he said, adding that Dax was removed because the community was not happy with the way the town was run. Ekandjo said there were a lot of things going wrong in Rehoboth, corruption being one of them. He added that the party had to act since the Rehoboth council was costing the party votes.He said Swapo’s poor performance at Rehoboth during last year’s national elections was because the community was unhappy with the way the council, under Dax, was running the town. ‘It was a protest vote,’ said Ekandjo in a telephonic interview. Dax is now the deputy mayor while Dawid Richter was made the new mayor last month. Ekandjo earlier wrote to all Swapo-controlled local authorities in the country that they must not change their council structures before this year’s local and regional elections.Swapo deputy secretary general Nangolo Mbumba also wrote a letter affirming Ekandjo’s directives. Some Rehoboth residents then cried foul, accusing the party leadership of double standards for allowing a change of mayor at the town. In response, Ekandjo said he had made an exception of Rehoboth because the council had defied the same orders last year and the party only wanted to rectify that. He added that last year the council had voted a Congress of Democrats councillor onto the management committee at the expense of a Swapo councillor. Ekandjo said the move was to correct that and make sure that Swapo was running the town in the interest of the community. The former deputy mayor and close Dax ally, Cecilia Sherally McNab, was elected as deputy chairperson of the management committee, while Lelanie Uiras will head the committee.Incencio Ihalwa lost his seat as chairperson but was re-elected as a management committee member, while Wilhelmina Benz was elected as the additional councillor.