Swapo squabbles continue

LEADERSHIP feuds continue in Swapo’s from national and regional to district level.

The latest leadership infighting to surface is in the Grootfontein district, where last year’s district elections were nullified by the same person who had supervised them.
The Grootfontein leadership squabble comes hot on the heels of a recent leadership crisis in the Hardap Region, where a number of regional leaders were either suspended or expelled from the party.
The June 2009 Grootfontein district election was declared null and void by Swapo’s Otjozondjupa regional co-ordinator, Otto Ipinge, who had overseen the process.
The district leadership that had served before the conference was reappointed to serve in their old positions indefinitely.
Party sources say a subsequent investigation by Oshikoto Swapo strongmen Armas Amukwiyu and Engel Nawatiseb found that Ipinge’s decision not to endorse the ‘elected’ leadership was the right one.
A source close to the Otjozondjupa structures said the two found that the elections were not conducted in accordance to the party’s constitution and election guidelines.
An example cited was that some of people who participated and voted in elections were not delegates to the district conference. Amukwiyu referred questions from The Namibian to Ipinge, who is responsible for the region.
Some Swapo members at Grootfontein had complained that Ipinge had sidelined the elected leadership and handpicked ‘his favourites’ to run the affairs of the district office.
Some disgruntled party members have accused Ipinge of destroying the party’s regional structures to serve his ambition of becoming regional governor of Otjozondjupa.
The Namibian has even received anonymous letters accusing Ipinge of being ‘the rot in Otjozondjupa’.
‘For me Swapo belongs to all the Namibians but not in Otjozondjupa, it only belongs to Otto and his people that he likes,’ reads one of the letters complaining about the way Ipinge handled the elections last year.
Ipinge could not be reached for comment yesterday, while party secretary general Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana referred questions to either Ipinge or the national leader assigned to chair the region, Health Minister Richard Kamwi, who was not available for comment either.