SPYL worried about ‘hibernating RDP agents’

THE Swapo Party Youth League has called on all supporters of the newly formed Rally for Democracy and Progress to come into the open rather than “playing hide and seek while sabotaging the ruling party from within”.

The Youth League’s Secretary for Information, Charles Siyauya, also called on the Government to make public the list of names submitted with the new party’s application for registration to ensure that RDP “agents” do not sneak into the upcoming Swapo congress. Although he refused to give any documentary evidence to The Namibian Siyauya said the new party, headed by former Swapo veteran Jesaya Nyamu, had received N$60 million from the Swedish government.”That is absolute rubbish.We don’t have any relations with the new party.We have total transparency in that respect.We can’t support individual political parties.The Swedish Social Democratic Party and Swapo have party contact but we can never bring in any financial support,” Lena Johansson Blomstrand, the Charge d’Affaires at the Swedish Embassy, told The Namibian.She found it “very offending” that the Youth league made such a statement.Siyauya said they had documentary evidence but it was confidential.”We are speaking from facts but the documents are only for Swapo.You can choose not to write it,” he said when challenged to provide evidence of his assertions.He said the money was signed for “by a person still hibernating in Swapo”.He said RDP members “must be bold, be visible and be brave enough to show their faces before (the Swapo) congress”.Siyauya also took a swipe at Swapo MP Hidipo Hamutenya, who claimed in a recent interview that the upcoming congress had already been rigged.”This is far from the truth and the people of Namibia know this only too well,” he said.He said elections in Swapo were “always conducted in a fair, transparent and democratic way” such as was witnessed at the 2004 extraordinary congress which elected President Hifikepunye Pohamba as the party’s presidential candidate.”Therefore we condemn in the strongest terms such utterances and find them subversive and destructive to the unity of the party and its rank and file,” Siyauya said.It is an open secret that Hamutenya was the biggest casualty of the disunity that accompanied the extraordinary congress.He told a local monthly magazine that Swapo President Sam Nujoma did not want him as a candidate and made life difficult not only for him, but also for those who supported him, who were subjected to witch-hunts.According to Hamutenya, the upcoming Swapo congress will be a sham because it has been rigged by all accounts, with Nujoma being at the centre of this rigging.Although he refused to give any documentary evidence to The Namibian Siyauya said the new party, headed by former Swapo veteran Jesaya Nyamu, had received N$60 million from the Swedish government.”That is absolute rubbish.We don’t have any relations with the new party.We have total transparency in that respect.We can’t support individual political parties.The Swedish Social Democratic Party and Swapo have party contact but we can never bring in any financial support,” Lena Johansson Blomstrand, the Charge d’Affaires at the Swedish Embassy, told The Namibian.She found it “very offending” that the Youth league made such a statement.Siyauya said they had documentary evidence but it was confidential.”We are speaking from facts but the documents are only for Swapo.You can choose not to write it,” he said when challenged to provide evidence of his assertions.He said the money was signed for “by a person still hibernating in Swapo”.He said RDP members “must be bold, be visible and be brave enough to show their faces before (the Swapo) congress”.Siyauya also took a swipe at Swapo MP Hidipo Hamutenya, who claimed in a recent interview that the upcoming congress had already been rigged.”This is far from the truth and the people of Namibia know this only too well,” he said.He said elections in Swapo were “always conducted in a fair, transparent and democratic way” such as was witnessed at the 2004 extraordinary congress which elected President Hifikepunye Pohamba as the party’s presidential candidate.”Therefore we condemn in the strongest terms such utterances and find them subversive and destructive to the unity of the party and its rank and file,” Siyauya said.It is an open secret that Hamutenya was the biggest casualty of the disunity that accompanied the extraordinary congress.He told a local monthly magazine that Swapo President Sam Nujoma did not want him as a candidate and made life difficult not only for him, but also for those who supported him, who were subjected to witch-hunts.According to Hamutenya, the upcoming Swapo congress will be a sham because it has been rigged by all accounts, with Nujoma being at the centre of this rigging.