SPYL pushes for political cleansing of civil service

THE Swapo Party Youth League (SPYL) in the Ohangwena Region has demanded the immediate removal of the principal of the Haimbili Haufiku Senior Secondary School at Eenhana, Dineinge Sheya, as well as the school’s superintendent, Hafeni Muahafa.

The SPYL claims that the two educators took schoolchildren to an RDP rally at Eenhana last Sunday.In a petition handed over to Ohangwena Governor Usko Nghaamwa on Friday, the SPYL claimed that Sheya and Muahafa are supporters of the Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP). They threatened to take the law into their own hands and expel the two teachers if they do not leave of their own accord. The SPYL also called on the Ministry of Education to remove other education officials in the region because of alleged RDP connections.’All civil servants who are supporters and sympathisers of RDP and insult the Swapo Party-led Government must leave the Swapo Party-led Government alone and go for politics,’ the petition said.They claimed that a number of school principals in the Ohangwena Region are campaigning against Swapo on the radio.The petition also said that vehicles of the Ministry of Lands, Ministry of Youth and Ministry of Trade and Industry had been seen at RDP rallies, while the office of the Ministry of Youth at Eenhana is allegedly being used to recruit RDP members.When approached by The Namibian, school principal Sheya denied that he had taken the children to an RDP rally or march. He said he did attend the meeting but went there from his farm and not from the school.’I saw some of my school learners there, but I do not how they got there,’ Sheya said.’I asked my superintendent, and he told me that some of the [hostel] children had asked permission to go to town for shopping.’Sheya said day pupils who live with their families are not under the school’s control over weekends.’These learners can go to political party meetings, and it’s not to say because they are from my school that I sent them there,’ Sheya said.