Eba Kandovazu
FORMER Prime Minister and Swapo Party member, Nahas Angula, is questioning Phil Ya Nangoloh’s true intentions rejoining the party, saying that Ya Nangoloh’s intends to divide the party.
Ya Nangoloh is quoted in a local daily newspaper that he want to rejoin the party to defend Geingob’s faction, Team Harambee. Ya Nangoloh reportedly believes that the party is still divested into two factions namely, Team Swapo and Team Harambee. Angula says the two factions are a thing of the past. According to him, although Ya Nangoloh has in the past advocated for the party’s failure, the party remains magnanimous.
“If he wants to join the party, that is fine, provided that he is not coming to cause divisions as implied in the media. He seems to [be] bent on perpetuating division in the party. We are sick and tired of the issues. We want unity now to push Namibia forward. The Swapo leadership is clear. They want him to apologise publicly and genuinely and I support that,” Angula says, adding that he is doubtful of Ya Nangoloh’s true intentions.
“He is talking about Harambee and Team Swapo and he seems to be aligned to one. We just want unity. These factions probably just exist in his imagination,” he says.
Swapo Party’s Secretary General (SG), Sophia Shaningwa, yesterday demanded that Ya Nangoloh issues a public apology to Founding Father, Sam Nujoma, before a membership card can be issued to him. Ya Nangoloh earlier this year applied for membership.
Shaningwa said that before the application could be approved by her office, the party took note of the fact that Ya Nangoloh has previously been a critic of the party and its leadership, to the extent of requesting the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2007 to investigate Nujoma and other Swapo leaders.
Shaningwa said that she took the application to the Political Bureau (PB) for a collective decision, leading to a meeting that subsequently gave Ya Nangoloh an option to publicly apologise.
In an unconfirmed letter of apology, seemingly by Ya Nangoloh, he apologises to Nujoma. “Please once again forgive me, Father of Namibian Nation, Cde Tatekulu Nujoma, and all other fellow SWAPO comrades, for those very grave breaches against the fundamental human rights and freedoms of our own members and other Namibians. Today, here and now, and as a champion for human rights, as well as a Christian and in complete submission, deference and recognition for his unwavering leadership during difficult times of national liberation struggle against Babylon and her lackeys, I unconditionally, tender my apology to Tatekulu Nujoma. Not for NSHR submission to ICC, but for anything I might have personally said or done to his honour and reputation or about him in anger, in the course of my struggle for human rights and freedoms, which might have offended Dr. Nujoma in any way, manner and fashion, whatsoever,” the purported apology letter by Ya Nangoloh reads.
