Ester Mbathera
The leader of Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) denied ever belonging to the ruling party.
Itula made this statement during an interview with Sophie Mokoena, the international editor for TV news at the South African Broadcasting Corporation, on Monday.
“I never had a membership card for the Swapo party. I was never a functionary of the Swapo government to start with. Neither in any of its structures. After independence, I participated in nothing whatsoever to do with governing Namibia or to do with the administration of the Swapo Party. My role ended at independence when we had freedom of association to go and seek any association as we so wished,” he said.
Itula said he was only part of Swapo of Namibia, the liberation movement, as the Swapo party was formed after independence.
After running as an independent in the 2019 presidential election, he was expelled from the Swapo party in 2020.
Itula was accused of allegedly working with ‘counter-revolutionary forces’ to destroy and weaken the party.
“My explanation was from a party at that time where I had no membership card,” he said.
This is despite his confirmation in an interview with the Evening Review (Episode 55-21.04.2020) that he remains a full member of Swapo, even after the party announced his expulsion on March 20, 2020.
In November 2019, days before the presidential elections, Itula said he had the feeling that Swapo would try to expel him to confuse his followers that he is not a member of the ruling party.
“I have got a vision. They will sit down a few days before the elections because when they said I should resign. I refused. And then they said they would expel me, and I gave them the go-ahead. Then they said they would excommunicate me,” he said at the time.
According to Itula, the Swapo that liberated Namibia is not the same Swapo that is currently governing the country.
“They have lost vision completely,” he said.
He spent 33 years studying and working in the United Kingdom.
He returned to Namibia in 2013.
Itula also worked as a lecturer at the Swapo Party School.
Swapo’s deputy secretary general, Uahekua Herunga recalls instances of Itula campaigning during the 2014 elections and publicly endorsing the party.
“He is sucking the whole story from his thumb. I remember during the 2017 party congress he was campaigning for Team Swapo as a Swapo party member. How can you be expelled from a party that you are not a member of? And he never disputed that,” said Herunga.
He said that after the 1989 election, no new party named Swapo was ever registered.
“What he is telling people is pure lies.”
In July 2019, during his independent campaign, he publicly informed politicians that while the people should vote for the Swapo party, they should also vote for him for the presidency. He even displayed his Swapo membership card to the crowd, Herunga said.
