Erasmus Shalihaxwe
The minister of home Affairs, immigration, safety and security, Albert Kawana, has requested that the public gatherings and procession bills be discussed after the November elections.
Speaking in parliament on Wednesday, Kawana claimed that people had misunderstood and misinterpreted the bill.
He accused some members of parliament from opposition parties of thinking the bill was introduced to suppress them and limit their ability to express and carry out their political activities.
‘’When I was out on an official mission, this bill attracted a lot of debates…some aspects of the debates were perhaps genuine, whereas others were based on misinterpretations of this bill. Particularly, an impression was given that this law was intended to sort out the opposition… as honourable Venaani put it. Yet, in Africa, we are among the top when it comes to good governance of democracy,’’ said Kawana.
He added that for many years, Swapo has had ‘’super’’ two-thirds majority members in parliament, and the governing party only missed the two-thirds majority by one seat in parliament in the last elections.
For this reason, he said Swapo has been a responsible governing party without oppressing the opposition.
”We are a democratic government, a responsible Swapo party-led government. I heard some of the views expressed by our colleagues, and because of the limited time available now to consult, I feel that this bill be put in a base until notice when we come back to finalise it, after the elections when most of these colleagues are longer here [pointing at the opposition benches,’’ said Kawana.
The opposition has criticized the bill, with the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) member of parliament Nico Smit calling it a copy of the colonial law that seeks to return Namibia to the apartheid era.
Another PDM member, Maximalliant Katjimune, took to the X social media platform, saying they will object to this “absurd law, which goes against the fundamental rights and freedoms as enshrined under Chapter 3 of the Constitution. We will continue to protect Namibian democracy at all costs,” he said.
