The highest posts in Namibia’s ruling party are up for grabs. But President Sam Nujoma says his comrades need not compete for the jobs.
Nujoma, who is also the president of the South West Africa People’s Organisation (Swapo), has made it known he will not tolerate campaigns for vice-president, secretary general and deputy secretary general.
Nujoma recently named three people he prefers to take the reigns of the party. At the same time he criticised those aiming for the posts, saying they were driven by personal ambition and ”self-aggrandisement”.
The person chosen as vice-president at Swapo’s congress between August 21 and 25 will most likely become president of Namibia in 2005 when Nujoma’s term of office ends.
Nujoma, who four years ago controversially changed the Constitution to remain in power longer, last year said he would not ask to stay on after 2005.
However, party insiders say Nujoma wants to retain control of government and ruling party affairs even after he has left the scene.
The attack on what he last week described as ”factions” was meant to intimidate potential rivals into sticking with the people he wants.
Speaking at the Swapo central committee meeting last weekend, Nujoma said: ”I know, and I am sure that everybody knows, that currently a tendency is developing among the Swapo party leadership of forming factions, some of which are based on self-aggrandisement and political ambitions. Those who are involved in these politically divisive activities must be exposed so that we can maintain cohesion and unity within Swapo,” he said.
Two groups had been jostling for power, campaigning underground to install either Prime Minister Hage Geingob or Hidipo Hamutenya, the Minister of Trade and Industry, as vice-president of the party. It was hoped that whoever emerges will be Swapo’s candidate for the country’s presidency during elections in 2004.
Insiders said Nujoma saw his influence slipping if any of the two were to move so high up in the ruling party. Some say Nujoma is using the emergence of competition for posts to cite fears that free campaigning would split Swapo.
A week before the central committee meeting Nujoma shocked the Swapo politburo, an elite ruling club consisting of most of Namibia’s Cabinet, by nominating Hifikepunye Pohamba as his choice for party vice-president. He also named Justice Minister Ngarikutuke Tjiriange as his man for secretary general and long-time liberation activists John Pandeni for deputy secretary general.
Nujoma will stay on as president of Swapo and it is believed that no one dares challenge him because of the popularity he enjoys among voters.
A Swapo central committee member learned last weekend that no one dares even go against candidates nominated by Nujoma.
The party’s president pushed through his candidates at the central committee meeting after his warning against those campaigning for the posts.
In a brave, but politically suicidal move, Mines and Energy Minister Jesaya Nyamu proposed Hamutenya to challenge Pohamba for the vice-presidency.
The counter-nomination led to a tense atmosphere and was shot down by Nujoma loyalists who criticised those trying to defy the president. Those at the meeting say Hamutenya’s nomination took a while to be seconded. Hamutenya, sensing the political danger of going against Nujoma, turned down the nomination.
From then the path was cleared for Nujoma to thrust his candidates upon the delegates. Nujoma’s nominees are people considered as those the president can influence even after he has stepped down.
The central committee, it was announced this week, has endorsed Nujoma’s nominees as the only candidates for the post. The central committee is the party’s second-highest decision-making body and sets the guidelines for nominations and elections.
Pohamba stressed this week that the meeting emphasised unity of the party as paramount. This does not rule out other nominations but those in the party believe Nujoma has strengthened his hold on the organisation.
The events of past weeks have been viewed by some observers as an indication that Swapo has yet to emerge from being a tightly controlled liberation movement. Nujoma has been president of the party since its formation in 1960 and many doubt that he will give up leadership at an expected extraordinary congress in 2004.
For now Nujoma appears determined to ensure that none of the people who could sideline him take charge of the ruling party — and perhaps in two years, the country.