Andrew Kathindi
Swapo President, Hage Geingob on Thursday refuted claims that the ruling party used loans to pay for the N$730 million Swapo party headquarters being built in Windhoek by Chinese company, Unik Construction Engineering.
Unik Construction Engineering, which has undertaken several projects in the country, including the N$1 billion construction of the road between Walvis Bay and Swakopmund, was awarded the tender to construct the ruling party’s headquarters last year.
Quizzed in Parliament on whether the awarding of the tender to the company was done so that it could receive more tenders in the future, the President denied the claims, stating that the money used in the party head office construction came from the pockets of Swapo members and its companies.
“Swapo throughout our 30 years have been collecting money. We started to say we must build our own party headquarters. We got N$ 30 million from our own members. We were paying monthly. N$30 million came from the membership. We had a meeting and I said we will not take loans from anybody. The house is built by SWAPO companies’ money. Registered companies, not illegal. We took money from those companies, N$400 million,” noted the president.
The building, being constructed next to the Katutura hospital, is being built out of the ruling party’s desire to have a modern office complex. It will also include a 170-vehicle parking lot.
The president said that the party’s books were open to provide proof of his claims and further scrutiny.
“We advertised for companies to apply through the papers. And about 40 companies applied and competed.”
This comes after, then, Minister of Finance, Calle Schlettwein had stated that no local companies had bid for the construction of the party’s N$730 million headquarters.
Schlettwein also stated then that it was the party’s prerogative to do with its funds as it pleased after questions were raised that the budget of the headquarters was excessive and those funds could be used on more pressing issues.
“I think it is a little bit presumptuous to dictate to any party, whether it’s a (political) party or a business, to say why don’t you use your money to build your head office for other purposes. You don’t know what the balance sheet of Swapo Party is. You don’t know what efforts the party has undertaken in assisting poor people and assisting drought victims,” the former Finance Minister said.
Through Kalahari Holdings, Swapo party owns various business ventures including Namib Contract Haulage (NCH) (transportation buses), Kudu Investment, Klondike Properties, NamPrint, Farm de Rust, Ndilimani Cultural troupe and New Dawn Video Production. The party also owns shares in MultiChoice Namibia and various other business entities.
