Kaapanda goes for foreign donors

INFORMATION Minister Joel Kaapanda yesterday warned that Government will not ‘tolerate external interference’, especially the funding of political parties, after one of the opposition parties recently attended a meeting in Brussels.

Kaapanda said funding of Namibian opposition parties by organisations outside the borders of the country were ‘contrary to the laws of our Republic’.His reaction was to last month’s meeting in Brussels, Belgium, which opposition Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) leader Hidipo Hamutenya attended.The one-day meeting, organised by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS), was also attended by leaders of centre-right parties in Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo and South Africa (Congress of the People and Inkatha Freedom Party).Similar meetings were held in Berlin and Johannesburg in 2005.Kaapanda said the aim of the conference was to plot how to roll back the achievements of the former liberation movements.According to him, Hamutenya told that meeting that the counting of ballot papers in last year’s disputed national elections was being done by State security agents and that all returning officers were dismissed after it became clear that Swapo was losing the elections.Kaapanda said such comments by Hamutenya amounted to nothing but ‘an act of a desperate politician’.He said the Government of Namibia could take action against the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung since it was meddling in the affairs of the country to create instability.Hamutenya denied using the word ‘intelligence’ at the Brussels meeting.However, he said he used the meeting to query why RDP party agents were not allowed to be part of the process at the verification centres.’We want to know who was at the so-called verification centres,’ he told The Namibian.Hamutenya challenged Kaapanda to come clean and tell the nation who were the people manning the verification centres and why such places had been created. Kaapanda said ‘some opposition (parties) have ulterior political motives, are in cahoots with external forces and only want to use our courts’.Opposition parties have approached the High Court, presenting evidence about suspected irregularities with the intention to ultimately ask for the nullification of the results and a recount or re-run.Kaapanda said Government had nothing against those who have legitimate reasons to go to court or question the election outcome.He said the electoral law allows citizens to seek redress through the courts in case of electoral doubts or disputes.Kaapanda said the opposition parties’ court action was ‘a strategy to create a Constitutional crisis’ where the President would be unable to form a Government, adding that the opposition was also trying to create uncertainty in the nation. ‘Why are the opposition losers insisting on the court case?’ he asked.He said the RDP’s defeat was a clear rejection by the people of Namibia and that their trust and confidence was in Swapo.Kaapanda told the media that courts should not be used to ‘settle political scores’ and called the opposition parties involved ‘immature and lacking patriotism’.He also accused them of having the ‘mentality of destroying Government if they don’t get their way’.’It appears that the mission of the opposition parties, led by the RDP, is to effect regime change through any means,’ he said.Hamutenya countered by saying that the RDP was not destabilising the country, but just questioning the dubious practices of those who were managing the elections, fixing the elections and moving the election goalpost. ‘If that is destabilising the country, then I can say sorry,’ he said.