Obrein Simasiku

The Grootfontein Swapo party district office is open to the public after a dramatic lockdown of the premises last Friday by disgruntled party members and sympathisers.
The premises were reopened on Monday on the advice of the police after a criminal case with CR no 43/7/2020 of malicious damage to property was registered by the Kalahari Holdings to whom the damaged property belongs.
No suspect was arrested and charged, and police investigations are in the infancy stage.
The office was weld closed and besieged by an angry mob on Friday late afternoon, forcing the district coordinator and staff members to flee from the office.
The mob protested against what they termed unfair election practice and they demanded to be issued with Swapo membership cards. 
According to Otjozondjupa regional coordinator Susan Hikopua, not all the protesters are card-carrying party members, as some of them are merely sympathisers. 
District coordinator John Haimbodi noted this is a second time the same group has angrily staged a protest to cause chaos over unsubstantiated claims. 
Haimbodi said the group is doing this with the backing of prominent local politicians trying to advance their political agendas.
“These individuals are known – and since it is an election year, they are starting again to convince the masses by creating chaos. These are the same people who never made it during last year’s renewal of terms and mandate for party bearers,” he stated.
“All the elections we conducted last were declared free and fair by national executives. On the issue of membership, we have procedures to follow on how sympathisers can be recruited within the party, rather than forcing matters,” explained Haimbodi.
He said they will engage the national executive on how to go about instituting disciplinary action against the perpetrators in line with the existing rules and the party’s constitution.