THE ruling Swapo Party’s lead lawyer last week accused expelled youth league secretary Elijah Ngurare of being the ideological father of the Affirmative Repositioning movement.
In his argument on behalf of the party in the Windhoek High Court in the case between Swapo and Ngurare, Job Amupanda, Dimbulukeni Nauyoma and George Kambala, senior counsel Vas Soni accused AR of wanting to destabilise the country as well as the Swapo Party.
The two youth leaders – Ngurare and Amupanda – as well as party members Nauyoma and Kambala were expelled from Swapo in July last year. They then took the party to court to challenge their dismissal.
Soni was asking the court to dismiss the case because it was a political issue and not a legal one which required the court’s intervention. He said there was a political battle within Swapo and that the courts did not have the resources to deal with such disputes.
His opponent Vincent Maleka, who represented the expelled quartet, argued that it was not a political case but a legal one since the party failed to follow its own internal procedures and laws when it decided to expel the four.
Soni argued that the four were primarily expelled for their activities under the Affirmative Repositioning movement, which he said was in direct conflict with the party’s stance and policy on land. He said the four’s activities in AR were undermining the party and it appeared they wanted to destroy the party from within.
He said to make matters worse, 2014 was an election year and the four started their land activities prior to the elections – a situation which undermined Swapo and damaged its reputation and could have had an impact on how the party performed during the elections.
“The party took action because its election prospects were being harmed,” Soni said about the November 2014 suspension of Amupanda, Kambala and Nauyoma.
He said that their expulsion was a result of the party fearing they might destabilise the country’s peace and stability after Amupanda made a statement on 15 July last year at an international land conference in Cape Town in South Africa that come 31 July, AR would occupy land and part of the programme was to grab land and that AR had lawyers ready to represent those arrested for grabbing land as well as money to bail them out.
He said it was for those reasons that the party’s politburo decided to expel the quartet on 17 July, to avoid lawlessness in the country.
Soni argued that the party decided to expel the youth leaders because Swapo as a voluntary association requires that like-minded people be part of it and that the four did not meet that criteria. He said the four did not comply with the party’s ideology, adding that Swapo membership is open to any Namibian on condition that they accept the party’s aims, objectives and values.
He said it was also evident in the fact that the expelled youth leaders made no apology for violating the party’s constitution.
“The want to enjoy the benefits of being members of the largest party in the country, but carry out and lead activities that are in conflict with that party’s position,” Soni said.
Soni added that by expelling the four, Swapo did not seek to silence them but allow them to speak freely on issues as well as campaign against the party, but not as Swapo members.
Soni said the party leadership’s decision was born from the fact that since 2012, the four youth leaders carried out a campaign to vilify the party’s leadership. He said that showed the youth leaders’ intention for four years was to undermine Swapo and destroy it with their programme.
Soni added that the party warned the four on various occasions and in 2013 they were asked to publicly apologise, but they refused to repent.
He said even in the four’s court application to be reinstated as party members, they attacked the party leadership.
Soni also addressed the issue in which the four argue that former party president Hifikepunye Pohamba had no right to be present and participate in the politburo meeting of 17 July 2015 which expelled them, since he had resigned as party president a few months before.
Soni said it is a party tradition that former leaders are allowed a seat in the politburo as well as the central committee. He said Ngurare himself was a proponent of former president Sam Nujoma, in 2007, being accorded a seat in the party’s politburo.
Maleka’s counter argument was that President Geingob reached an agreement with AR for the provision of 200 000 plots to be made available to the masses, pointing out that the AR movement did have a just cause.
After listening to both sides of the case, Acting Judge Collins Parker said he would deliver judgement on 12 May.
