IPC accuses Swapo of offering Erongo leaders N$10 000 in bribes to defect

THE Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) has accused Swapo of offering some of its leaders in the Erongo region N$10 000 in cash bribes to lure them away.

Those who have allegedly been offered bribes include IPC chairpersons at Usakos, Karibib and Omaruru, as well as recent defector Obbrin Mundeke from the Dâures constituency, who is said to have accepted the offer and resigned.
Mundeke, however, denies accepting a bribe.

“I do not know where they got this. These are lies. I never got any money nor was I approached,” he says.

Mundeke says his resignation was due to internal party frustrations and unresolved tensions with the IPC leadership, and that he had lost against Lucia Mbuti, the party’s chairperson for the Dâures constituency.

“Just like any person, where do you go if things are not going well? You go back home, and that’s where I’m going – back to Swapo where I came from,” he says.

He says he has worked hard to serve the party at Dâures, but was never appreciated.

Mundeke says pictures of him alongside other IPC members who defected to Swapo does not mean he was poached.
“I left the party on my own terms,” he says.

IPC Erongo regional chairperson Aloisius Kangulu has confirmed the allegations of bribery.

“They have approached patriot Januarie Eddy at Usakos, and they failed. They also approached patriot Gurirab, the Karibib chair, and patriot Simon at Omaruru. They drastically failed.

They ended up with patriot Obbrin Mundeke in the Dâures constituency, who defected for N$10 000,” he says.

‘TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE POOR’

Kangulu accuses Swapo of poaching members of other political parties by taking advantage of their economic position.

“The fact remains that the same Swapo that brought the nation into the current situation where young people have no job, no land for housing and a high rate of electricity, is the same party that is taking advantage of poor people.

As much as everyone needs money, if approached with money, people should shun such behaviour,” he says.

Kangulu confirms Mundeke resigned from the party on 13 June.

IPC member at Usakos Edward Januarie says he was approached by IPC defector (Taapopi Shikongo) via a phone call, asking for a meeting.
“I did not go meet them, because I already knew what they were trying to do,” he says.

Januarie says it is frightening to see an incumbent government stooping “this low” in an effort to cripple other political parties’ branches, “because they know if a certain person is captured the IPC will fall”.

‘EMBARRASSMENT TO DEMOCRACY’

“Such tactics are an embarrassment to democracy and show no respect to freedom of choice and vote,” he says.
Shikongo, who was among three IPC members who joined Swapo in April, says he was mandated by Swapo to recruit former Swapo members in the region.

“The mandate is part of the party’s ambition to reclaim Walvis Bay from the IPC,” he says.
He however, refutes bribery accusations, describing them as unfounded.

“It’s not true. We know how the IPC is being run and using our brothers and sisters for themselves. I was the one who initiated Mundeke to join Swapo . . . to come back home, because he was suffering.

There are so many things I want to say, but let’s make time, so I’ll tell you about the so-called leadership of the IPC. They are just using people,” he says.

Swapo’s Erongo regional coordinator, Daniel Muhuura and the party’s deputy secretary general, Uahekua Herunga, yesterday did not respond to questions sent to them at the time of publication, and phone calls went unanswered.

The party’s Walvis Bay information district coordinator, Claudius Ikera, refuted the bribery allegations, saying he is not aware of such activities.

“Those are lies. Why would we bribe people to join Swapo? Even those who left the IPC did it voluntarily and their own conviction,” he says.

‘MAKING UP STORIES’

Ikera is of the view that the IPC is panicking and is now resorting to “making up stories” to put Swapo in a bad light.

“The party remains firm and determined, but it will never bribe people and those found in the act will be dealt with. Freedom of choice should remain,” he says.

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