Lahja Nashuuta

Swapo over the weekendagreed to honour its constitution by allowing Vice President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah (NNN) to act as the party’s president until its extraordinary congress is held in April 2025.

The party’s presidency became vacant last month following the death of president Hage Geingob. Swapo’s constitution states that if the president’s position becomes
vacant for whatever reason, an extra-ordinary congress shall be called by the central committee within three months of the vacancy occurring to elect a new president to complete the term of the former president, unless that vacancy occurs six months before the ordinary congress. In such event, the vice president shall exercise all the powers, duties and functions of the president, pending the election of
the president at the ordinary congress.

Therefore, on Saturday, the party’s central committee convened and decided to host the extraordinary congress on 19 April 2025, or any other date thereafter “as time may permit”, to elect a person to serve as president of the party and complete Geingob’s term.

Nandi-Ndaitwah will now hold the position of acting party president, along with her duties as vice president.

New Era has learned that there will not be an election for the position of vice president at the extraordinary congress, as such gathering is solely earmarked to elect the party president.

“The Central Committee noted that the party has after elections at the seventh ordinary congress already identified its presidential candidate for the November 2024 presidential elections, in Nandi-Ndaitwah as the vic-president, in terms of Rules 8, 10 and 53, and public announcements to that effect had long
been made,” the party’s communique, issued after Saturday’s meeting, reads.

Swapo has further emphasised that according to its rules and procedures for the election of party office-bearers and representatives at legislative and government levels, since Geingob was unable to run as a presidential candidate at the upcoming election, having
exhausted his constitutional two terms at the helm of the country, Nandi-Ndaitwah is the party’s candidate.  

According to article 53 of the Swapo Party constitution, “the president of the party shall automatically be the party candidate to the presidency of the
Republic. 

Where such party president is barred by the Namibian constitution to be a presidential candidate on account of having served two terms as president of the republic, the vice president shall automatically be the candidate for the presidency of the Republic.” The central committee further appointed party secretary general (SG) Sophia Nahango Shaningwa, Uahekua Herunga (vice SG) and other persons to be authorised representatives to submit the relevant documents and name of the Swapo Party presidential candidate to the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN).

The Swapo CC decision was, however, welcomed with mixed feelings.  While various other senior party leaders also publicly confirmed Nandi-Ndaitwah as the party’s automatic presidential candidate for the 2024 Presidential elections, New Era has learned that some felt there was a misinterpretation of the party constitution. 

According to Swapo Party Youth League secretary Ephraim Nekongo, some party members had before the death of president Geingob expressed the view that there was a need to call and hold an extraordinary congress to, in their view, identify and elect the party’s presidential candidate.

Clearing the air 

“In 2023, at the congress, all members were aware that the vice president would automatically be the candidate of Swapo. 

“I am so surprised that lately, some members started demanding that we need an extraordinary congress,” Nekongo said.

He clarified that the call for the c
ongress was for the party to agree and announce the extraordinary congress. 

“But that does not mean we have a vacuum in the party presidency, as Netumbo has automatically filled that position,” added Nekongo. He also said there are rumours that Founding President Sam Nujoma endorsed Nandi-Ndaitwah as the party president. 

“The founding father (FF), as a senior member of the party, came in to guide and caution us to adhere to the rules and constitution of the party. He made it clear that there was no way that the party would bring in another person to fill the president’s vacant position because, by the Swapo Party constitution, the vice president has automatically filled the position,” Nekongo stated.

At the meeting held on Saturday, Nujoma said “in my opinion, for the position of president of the Swapo Party, the central committee should nominate and elect or proclaim by acclamation our current acting president and vice president of the Swapo party, Nandi-Ndaitwah, as our presidential candidate for the next elections.  

In other words, if the central committee decides that an extraordinary congress should take place, such congress should be carefully managed in such a way that Nandi-Ndaitwah emerges from that congress as the Swapo Party president”.

Meanwhile, political analyst Ndumba Kamwanyah said the central committee (CC) dealt with a different issue than the party’s presidential succession. 

“It was not about whether NNN should be the presidential candidate, but about filling the vacant position left by late Geingob’s death. The party constitution clearly stipulates that a replacement must happen within three months, and the CC’s resolution did not address that lacuna. But I find it troublesome that the FF intervened and influenced the CC at the expense of the party’s constitutional processes and procedures. Is he beyond the party constitution? For me, that amounts to personality cult politics.

So, in a nutshell, the CC did not solve but postponed the party’s trouble, which I think will be challenged soon by some party members,” he observed.

-lnashuuta@gmail.com