‘Unsophisticated’ Shaningwa not looking for a man

Swapo secretary general Sophia Shaningwa has been criticised for addressing personal gossip about having a man at a political rally instead of addressing issues affecting the electorate.

Shaningwa, during a rally at Helao Nafidi in the Ohangwena region over the weekend, said there is a rumour going around that she attends rallies to look for a husband.

“Some of you are saying that I am running around at Swapo rallies because I do not have a husband and apparently I’m hoping to get a man at Swapo rallies. Who told you that I do not have a husband? And who told you that I am looking for a man? Nonsense! I am not mad and I am not crazy, I know my qualities,” she said in a viral video.

She questioned whether those who are spreading such rumours want her to be their wife, saying she is not interested.

She urged the nation to avoid calling Swapo presidential candidate Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah derogatory names.

Former ambassador Pius Dunaiski says due to Shaningwa’s position as the secretary general of the ruling party, she should not have addressed such rumours at a platform of that nature.

“She is expected to have more political decorum and sophistication and not rise to provocations. She should not have gone to their level as she is actually destroying Swapo’s political message in a very critical election year,” he said yesterday.

However, professor Johan Coetzee says Shaningwa is under a lot of criticism as a result of infighting and division within Swapo, and the unfair criticism against her is due to those within the party that are against her and vying for her position.

“Keeping people together now is more important since there’s not actually a leader, because there is no president of Swapo at the moment,” he says.

Coetzee says as the secretary general, Shaningwa will attract a lot of attention, but commenting on the rumours was not the right thing to do during an election year.

He says she should have made an official comment if she wanted to address the rumours.

“That’s what people do, they just take a small sentence of what you said and then they forget about the rest,” he says.

Coetzee says politics are dirty and anything goes in lobbying, as there are no rules.

“It’s like war. There are no rules in war. Politics is very similar,” he says.

Speaking to The Namibian yesterday, Shaningwa said the video circulating of her addressing the rumour was taken out of context as those who attended the rally understood what she meant.

“You would not understand where the details are coming from, it would be very difficult for me to explain to you if you were not part and parcel of the meeting,” she said.