…as Swapo cites lack of regulations
Andrew Kathindi
It appears that a decision taken by political parties in 2016 not to reveal the source of their donations has come back to haunt them, four years later.
This comes amid increased calls for the Swapo party to be transparent with its source of funds. The ruling party has been implicated in the Fishrot saga.
In 2016, following the amendment of the Electoral Act of 2014, political parties unanimously decided to leave out the disclosing of the source of their donations exceeding a prescribed amount as per the Act, after a workshop by the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) meant deliberate the draft regulations.
ECN Legal Advsior Heidi Jacobs argued at the time that parties did not have to say where the donations come from but rather the “manner that is prescribed”.
The consultation on this matter took a further four years before the regulation came into effect in November 2019.
It is on this technicality that, President Hage Geingob, on Sunday 12 July argued that Swapo was under no statutory obligation to disclose the source of its funds “as the prescribed donation amount beyond which donations must be publicly disclosed did not exist at the time.”
Geingob further noted, “Both recipients of political donations and donors were under no obligation, until 18 November 2019, to make public disclosure of donations beyond the fixed threshold amount.”
The Swapo party is accused of having benefitted from Fishrot funds through Icelandic fishing company Samherji after company’s former executive turned whistleblower, Jóhannes Stefánsson last year claimed that he had paid a “goodwill payment” to Swapo. He said this payment was necessary to facilitate Samherji’s receipt of fishing quotas.
Furthermore, a documentary by Al Jazeera aired last year, in which, former Fisheries Minister Beranrd Esau appears to be soliciting funds for Swapo’s campaign in exchange for quotas.
The revelation comes after the President claimed that he could not retroactively punish anyone even if internal investigations the party had launched into the party links to Fishrot confirmed the allegations.
“If there was no law, how do you know you are wrong? The law is now going to be there. And definitely if we see that these people gave the money breaking the law. Let the courts deal with it because we didn’t know where source is from, if somebody got the money.”
Geingob added, “Nobody said, ‘we’re going to give you money to run your congress, it’s money we stole from Fishcor,’ know nobody says that.”
People’s Democratic Movement (PDM) Secretary General Manuel Ngaringombe has said the Swapo should not hide behind technicalities and prolonged consultation period over the regulations, but should as the leading party open up its books.
“For transparency sake and the fact that we are political parties and we are accountable to the public, Swapo cannot hide on a meeting from 2016. If Swapo is transparent and the party that really wants to lead Namibia and faithful to the people of Namibia, and not have anything to hide as their president was saying, if that’s the truth, Swapo should allow Namibians to prove them by revealing their sources and donations and by opening their books for public scrutiny through the Auditor General,” the PDM SG told Windhoek Observer.
On the political parties opting to not disclose their donors in 2016, Ngaringombe said the decision was wrong. He further argued that, “They should be bold enough as the ruling party and say this is what we’re going to prove to the Namibian nation. Swapo cannot hide this pettiness. For the sake of being the leading government, they should open up. That decision was wrong.”
