Paul T. Shipale
Once again, the death of president Geingob has now brought to the fore the debate about the possible gender imbalance in terms of SWAPO’s zebra style policy. The policy commits SWAPO to fill its top four positions and parliamentary list with a 50:50 gender balance, whereby if for example the party president is a man, the vice president should be a woman and vice versa.
This policy is set to face its sternest test at the extraordinary congress slated to take place from 28 February to 02 March 2025 as SWAPO’s leadership currently consists of two women and one man. The women are vice president Nandi-Ndaitwah and secretary general Sophia Shaningwa, while deputy secretary general Herunga is the only man remaining in the top four leadership.
Nandi-Ndaitwah, who was sworn in as the country’s vice president after Geingob’s death, said that she doesn’t want to comment on issues of interpretations. “Of course there are rules and procedures that govern the SWAPO constitution, but I don’t want to go into that. Those questions should be directed to the secretary general or the secretary for information and mobilisation,” she said.
Indeed, political analysts have noted ambiguity in SWAPO’s plans for its upcoming extraordinary congress and leadership transition says a report in the Windhoek observer of Friday 20 December 2024 titled: “SWAPO’S extraordinary congress reversal comes with ambiguity” This follows a report in the Namibian newspaper on Wednesday, 18 December 2024, titled: “SWAPO’s extraordinary congress is scheduled to take place on 28 February next year, with the position of party vice president allegedly not being contested”.
The report follows the SWAPO’s Party announcement by its spokesperson, Hilma Nicanor, when she issued a press release on Thursday, 19 December 2024, on the outcome of the SWAPO Party central committee meeting held on Friday, 13 December 2024 at the Gateway Centre in Windhoek. Nicanor said the central committee meeting resolved to hold the extraordinary congress from 28 February to 2nd March 2025 in order to elect a person to complete the remaining term of office caused by the passing of the late President Hage Geingob. However, it is reported that the position of Vice-President of SWAPO, currently held by president-elect Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, who is set to be endorsed as SWAPO president at the extraordinary congress, will allegedly not be open for contestation. Nevertheless, some party leaders and members alike believe the vice president position must be filled.
Some SWAPO Central Committee members believe this could cause a leadership crisis in the party. “This has made people unhappy, because the contradiction is becoming too much. It’s shameful,” the report said. “Some people wanted Nandi-Ndaitwah to continue serving as the vice president until 2027. God forbid, what if the vice president dies? The party would not have a president or vice president. We should not allow that,” the report concluded.
It was reported that some SWAPO members are pushing for former SWAPO Party Youth League (SPYL) Secretary Elijah Ngurare to be elected as the party’s vice president. There are also widespread assumptions that there is a catalogue list of candidates queuing for the VP position. I might be wrong but I will bet my money that this is the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about. It is for this reason that I am of the opinion that the SWAPO’S extraordinary congress reversal does not only come with ‘ambiguity’ but shows various actors at play.
It seems the revised timeline for electing a new party president, reversing an earlier decision to hold the congress in April 2025 to 28 February to 2nd March 2025, is a strategic move to swear in the president-elect before electing the party president. One analyst said “They (SWAPO) understand that April is a long way off, and they do not want to swear in the president-elect before electing the party president”. The analyst was also of the opinion that SWAPO’s decision to conclude these processes before March 21 aligns with the party’s aim to ensure that Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah becomes the party president before the inauguration. Nevertheless, as the extraordinary congress approaches, the guesswork around the party’s leadership transition has grown.
There are hints pointing to the fact that there is scarce optimism of any sort of competition for the president’s position in SWAPO’s leadership. I strongly believe that Nandi-Ndaitwah will be endorsed as the party’s new president. But the question is; will there also be a need to elect the party’s vice president? Even if there are some people speculating that the president position will likely be claimed without contest, I doubt if the extraordinary congress will endorse anyone for the party’s vice president position without a fight as if grabbing frogs from the water ponds.
We all know that the extraordinary congress, which was necessitated by the death of party president Hage Geingob and which must be held within three months from the time the vacancy has occurred, according to the SWAPO constitution, did not take place but was postponed to early next year. The party’s spokesperson, Hilma Nicanor, in August this year, announced that the party would convene its extraordinary congress in April next year.
In September, the party Secretary General Shaningwa said the party could not fund and financially sustain an extraordinary congress. She made this statement in a responding affidavit submitted to the High Court when SWAPO filed an affidavit to defend its decision not to hold an extraordinary congress to elect a party president. This follows a legal challenge by Reinhold Shipwikineni, along with Joshua Vaino Martins, Petrus Ndeshipanda Shituula, Erich Chrismann Shivute, and Aina Kalimba Angula, who requested SWAPO to hold an extraordinary congress.
The High Court has however dismissed the application on an urgent basis filed by Reinhold Shipwikineni and three others against the SWAPO Party, ruling that the case was not properly constituted. Sisa Namandje, who was representing SWAPO, raised procedural objections, arguing that the second and fifth applicants were not properly constituted to appear in court. He also contended that Shipwikineni lacked the legal standing to represent the other applicants. Namandje called the application frivolous, academic, moot; meaning the application no longer needs to be addressed because something has happened that solved the issue, nugatory; meaning is of no force or effect, invalid, or useless and urged the court to dismiss it with costs.
In a report that appeared in the New Era newspaper of 02 September 2024, SWAPO Secretary General, Sophia Shaningwa, in an answering affidavit submitted to the High Court, said SWAPO has managed its affairs over the years with measured flexibility. She reiterated that before 2004, SWAPO’s succession planning and the management of internal elections had maintained party unity and served SWAPO well. “The position of the president of SWAPO was not contested at successive congresses since the 1960s to 2012, notwithstanding the party’s constitution requiring SWAPO to hold an elective congress every five years,” Shaningwa noted.
This approach, she argued, demonstrated a “lawful way of applying the party’s constitution with flexibility.” Shaningwa went on to explain that SWAPO’s second president Hifikepunye Pohamba stood unopposed for the position of party president at the party’s 5th elective congress in 2012. Moreover, Shaningwa pointed out the procedural deficiencies in the group’s affidavits, particularly highlighting that Shipwikineni, the lead applicant, did not make essential statements to confirm he was acting on behalf of the group. “This is a fatal omission”, she emphasised.
The court case revolved around two main points of contention: the validity of the SWAPO central committee’s decision to schedule an extraordinary congress, and an order for the court to mandate such a congress within 30 days of its ruling. However, Shaningwa pointed out that the group has not directly challenged the decision itself, but rather its “adoption” and “implementation,” which she described as a flawed choice of remedy. She also highlighted that after internal conflicts arose following an extraordinary congress in 2004, SWAPO adopted new rules to prevent future disunity. These rules stipulated that the party’s presidential candidate should automatically be the party president, and in the event of the president’s ineligibility, the vice president would be the candidate.
Shaningwa stressed that SWAPO’s current rules had been in place since 2004 to ensure that the selection of the party’s presidential candidate did not cause internal division. Furthermore, she detailed that following the death of president Geingob in February this year, SWAPO’s central committee decided not to hold an extraordinary congress immediately, given the “sombre national mourning” and logistical challenges. Instead, they scheduled an extraordinary congress for April 2025 to elect a new president to complete Geingob’s unexpired term. Shaningwa added that this decision was within the party’s constitutional framework, which allows for flexibility in extraordinary circumstances.
The SWAPO party constitution and the rules for the election of office bearers stipulates that candidates who will contest the positions of president, vice president, secretary-general and deputy secretary-general, at least one such candidate must be a woman. Article 11 (16) says “The congress shall elect officials provided that during the election of the president, the vice president, the secretary general and the deputy secretary general, the congress shall ensure that two of such positions are held by women”.
We all remember when after the 2022 SWAPO party’s congress Evelyn !Nawases-Taeyele, who lost out on SWAPO’s deputy secretary general position, due to the party’s 50/50 gender policy has challenged the decision to eliminate her from the second round of elections after scoring the second highest in the first round. Uahekua Herunga had garnered 363 of the votes, while !Nawases-Taeyele received 326 votes. David Hamutenya only managed to get 92 votes but the re-run was called between the two male candidates. Congress returning officer Joshua Kaumbi had earlier ruled out !Nawases-Taeyele in the second round, citing the party’s policy on gender representation. !Nawases-Taeyele said the party constitution says the top four should consist of at least two males and two females.
According to !Nawases-Taeyele’s lawyers, Metcalfe Beukes Attorneys, as a result of the returning officer’s “erroneous interpretation of Article 11 (16) of the party’s constitution”, the rerun took place between the two male candidates, with Herunga emerging victorious. On that occasion, Legal expert John Nakuta said that situations like that always occur when decisions are taken on the basis of a misinterpretation of an empowering provision or law.
“This is a classic example of an error of law (mistake of law). In this case, the law is the SWAPO Constitution and the Rules for Election of Office Bearers. Rule 9 was clearly misinterpreted.” One female candidate serves as the peremptory floor, not the ceiling. It makes room for a scenario where all four top positions might be occupied by women. “It is my considered view that the presiding officer and his team misinterpreted rule nine,” Nakuta said, adding that in the same vein, the runoff did not occur in accordance with the tenets of the party’s governing rules. He said it was supposed to happen between the two top candidates but the whole fiasco is further complicated by the fact that the presiding officer and/or the party cannot now willy-nilly revoke the outcome of the DSG position.
Immediately after the above interpretations, we all recall when former Cabinet minister Jerry Ekandjo said if Nandi-Ndaitwah runs for the party presidency, then she has to resign from her current vice president position and the extraordinary congress will have to fill two positions. “The one left by the deceased president and one left by the vice president. If she loses, then she won’t become vice president. It’s a risk. If she runs, she has to work hard not to be an ordinary member,” he said.
In view of the above and thereof, the SWAPO party should therefore avoid the repeat of the same error of law (mistake of law) and implement the constitution objectively without bias and prejudice. The party should avoid the temptation to always look at things from a subjective and emotional point of view. Similarly, the party should not forget its long held tradition of an inclusive leadership, in terms of which there should be ethnic and demographic balance at the helm of the party and the country’s leadership. This principle was laid down by the Founding President and Father of the Namibian Nation, H.E. Dr. Sam Nujoma, when he always made sure to include all ethnic groups in the top leadership.
Let us honour the legacy of the Founding President and Father of the Namibian Nation and heed his timeless call to unity of purpose and action when he weaved together a tapestry and a mosaic of our different cultures into the fabric of our identity as a nation where the echoes of his wisdom resound for eternity when he always says: “a people united, striving to achieve a common good for all members of the society, will always emerge victorious” Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of my employer and this newspaper and are not in any way connected to my position but merely reflect my personal opinion as a citizen.
