Erasmus Shalihaxwe
Joseph Kauandenge, from the National Unity Democratic Organisation (NUDO), has blamed aspiring party leader Barry Rukoro for the party’s failed elective congress.
NUDO was set to elect new leaders over the weekend, but the party’s national executive committee called the congress off to avoid a possible physical brawl.
On Sunday, Rukoro said the congress was called off because the outgoing leadership was not ready to host the election, and many reports that were supposed to be presented to the congress were missing.
Kauandenge said that Rukoro is manipulating the truth.
He said Rukoro put his personal interest above the party’s interest by using his supporters to cause anarchy and chaos at the congress.
“He must man up and take full responsibility for his mafia-type leadership style. He is solely responsible for what happened and must stop hiding behind the leadership that we did not want the congress to continue,” said Kauandenge.
According to him, Rukoro brought people to the congress who were not part of the delegates.
These people, Kauandenge said, wanted to enter the congress venue.
He said the party leadership was prepared to host a credible congress, and NUDO electoral commissioners were on standby to take over and run the elections.
“His people were saying no Barry, no congress. Who put his own personal interest above the party’s interest. We had a master list ready to start registering delegates, but Rukoro brought the whole Katutura there,” questioned Kauandenge.
He added that the party spent over N$881 000 to organise the congress.
Rukoro stated that the leadership went out of their way to devise a “satanic” plan to waste party resources and collapse the national council and national congress.
“The party leadership has displayed the highest level of incompetence in administering and managing the processes required to have a successful national congress. We are saying so because, when organising the national congress, a few things should be in place to give any suggestion that the party is indeed ready to host it,” said Rukoro.
He explained that the master list of a national congress is an important document that links delegates to the event and legitimizes their participation.
According to Rukoro, the documents must be published well in advance for the delegates to study, verify, and be given the opportunity to either condone or raise irregularities around them.
“As we speak, an important document is still not published to stakeholders. In the presence of this shortcoming, one can only conclude that the leadership never had the plan to host the congress,” argued Rukoro.
