Ya Nangoloh applies for Swapo membership

ELIASER NDEYANALE and TILENI MONGUDHINAMRIGHT executive director Phil ya Nangoloh has applied to join Swapo, a political party he accused in the past of killing Namibians and of serious human rights abuses.

Ya Nangoloh – who still believes that former Swapo president Sam Nujoma should be investigated by the International Criminal Court – applied to join the ruling party on 7 May 2021.

has seen Ya Nangoloh’s Swapo membership card application form. He paid N$35 for the membership card.

Samora Machel district coordinator Immanuel Lazarus told on Saturday that he approved Ya Nangoloh’s application for membership.

He added that initially Ya Nangoloh approached Swapo secretary general Sophia Shaningwa to apply for a Swapo membership card but he was referred to Samora Machel district where he lives.

Lazarus said Ya Nangoloh is an “intellectual person who understands Swapo values and principles”.

“We welcome anyone. We welcomed a lot of people from the opposition parties including those who were anti-Swapo. Why not him? We say let’s welcome him on board and if he is not qualified, let the high authority say so,” he said.

Although a membership card has been approved by the district leadership, Shaningwa yesterday said she had not yet received ya Nangoloh’s application.

Swapo Khomas regional coordinator, Elliot Mbako on Saturday said Ya Nangoloh is welcome to join Swapo just like any other person.

“Is it a crime to accept him? He has been a member of Swapo and he is just coming back home. His application is on my table waiting to be processed,” Mbako said.

Contacted for comment yesterday, Ya Nangoloh said he has always been a de facto Swapo member although he did not have a membership card.

He said that he joined Swapo on 21 May 1974 at Oshigambo High School in the Oshikoto region. After that he said, he was registered by Andreas Nuukwawo as a member at a Swapo farm in Lusaka, Zambia.

“To say I don’t qualify it’s a none issue. Why don’t I qualify? Are Nahas [Angula] and Pendukeni [Iivula-Ithana] qualified to be expelled in Swapo? I am against the destruction of Swapo. If Swapo goes away, can we imagine what will happen to our country?

“Swapo must not be destroyed at all. If it is destroyed, we will be doomed,” he said.

In 2007, Ya Nangoloh asked the International Criminal Court to investigate the role of founding president Sam Nujoma, former defence minister Erkki Nghimtina, retired defense force chief Solomon Hawala and defence force colonel Thomas Shuuya for the killing of Namibians suspected to be spies of the apartheid regime.

Nujoma’s allies at the time accused Ya Nangoloh of embarking on a personal vendetta to tarnish Nujoma’s reputation.

Ya Nangoloh insisted yesterday that he still holds the view that the International Criminal Court should investigate founding president Sam Nujoma and that he must be held accountable for alleged war crimes.

“Not in his personal capacity but as an ex-officio. I know he never killed anyone or ordered anyone to be killed but he was the head of Swapo at the time,” Ya Nangoloh said.

In 2016 while addressing former SWATF and Koevoet members, Ya Nangoloh likened Swapo to the colonial South African apartheid regime.

Ya Nangoloh is the founder of Namrights and its precursor National Society for Human Rights. Both organisations have been ardent critics of Swapo and Nujoma.

He has since 2019 publicly supported president Hage Geingob and often attacked the president’s critics on his Facebook account.

Before defecting from Swapo, Ya Nangoloh was seen as a fanatical member of the liberation movement and that he was even prepared to kill for it. But after independence, Swapo and its leaders castigated him for trying to tarnish the name of the country and that of the party.

Former president Hifikepunye Pohamba branded ya Nangoloh’s request to investigate Nujoma as an “insult”.

Former editor of the Swapo publication Today, Asser Ntinda wrote in an editorial of the party mouthpiece years ago that “Ya Nangoloh has become a national disgrace”.

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