Namibia’s ruling Swapo Party plans to amend the country’s Constitution at its end-November congress to do away with the position of prime minister and create the position of deputy president instead, sources said this week.
This would ensure Swapo’s leadership, still dominated by former president Sam Nujoma, tightens its grip over a government accused of ineptitude, graft and corruption.
The move appears to have been precipitated by a crisis of legitimacy, set off by the resignation of veteran politburo member Hidipo Hamutenya last week from both Parliament and the party he has served for 46 years, 30 of them as politburo member.
Hamutenya, or “HH” as he is better known, said he could no longer serve a party that had lost its vision and direction. He would build a political career outside Swapo, the party that led Namibia to independence in 1990.
In a recent interview Hamutenya described the coming Swapo congress as “a sham”. He claimed Swapo president Nujoma had rigged the congress in advance by ensuring that only proven loyalists would be allowed to attend the event.
Those not in line with Nujoma’s autocratic wishes were sidelined to make sure that a tightly scripted façade of political theatre would play into Nujoma’s hands, Hamutenya said.
The congress would be “… a public relations charade and the fact that the one who is going to chair it has been central to the rigging goes to show that the whole affair is, indeed, a sham”, he said.
On the day Hamutenya resigned, Swapo announced that former prime minister Hage Geingob would be nominated as vice-president of Swapo at the congress, scheduled for November 27 to 30.
Namibia’s President Hifikepunye Pohamba was nominated as party president. It is expected that Attorney General and Justice Minister Pendukeni Ithana-Iivula will become the party’s next secretary general.
Hamutenya’s resignation — as well as news of a new political party, the Rally for Democracy and Peace (RDP), which will be launched on Friday — ignited a crisis of confidence inside Swapo, which had demanded that all members sign oaths of allegiance.
The list of 500 names, those who signed the RDP’s application to the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN), found its way to Swapo’s regional structures via the offices of Ithana-Iivula and other known pro-Nujoma hardliners.
RDP founding member Jesaya Nyamu, who, like Hamutenya, was unceremoniously fired as minister by Nujoma in 2004 for daring to oppose his plans for Pohamba to be his chosen successor, demanded that the ECN explain how the list came to be in Swapo’s hands so quickly.
The ensuing witch-hunt has resulted in several Swapo stalwarts — such as founding member Andimba Toiva ya Toiva, former attorney general Hartmut Ruppel, Prime Minister Nahas Angula and Dr Nickey Iyambo — being accused of disloyalty to the party.
Swapo insiders said Nujoma and his followers wanted to rid the party’s top structures of all moderates who might oppose moves to amend the Namibian constitution to scrap the position of prime minister and bring Geingob back into government as a deputy president.
Although Nujoma announced he will not stand for party president again, he is expected to become party chairperson, which will allow him to continue to dictate policy through Swapo’s politburo. The politburo’s 20 members act as a “super-Cabinet”, vetting all executive decisions taken by Pohamba’s government.
Pohamba, who is in ill health, has made it clear that he does not want to stand as president in the 2009 elections. He is expected to step aside, allowing Geingob to take over as president without facing direct elections, sources said.
Geingob, although unceremoniously fired in 2002 as prime minister, was instrumental in shanghaiing Nujoma’s controversial third term through Parliament in 1999.
His sudden promotion from political outcast to future presidential hopeful has raised political eyebrows. Although he is seen as a political moderate, questions remain about his links to murdered South African mining tycoon Brett Kebble and other controversial businessmen.
Political analyst Professor André du Pisani said Swapo would not be the same again, but he was hesitant to describe the latest developments as a final split between the party’s pro-Nujoma hardliners and pro-Hamutenya moderates.
The seeds of Swapo’s slow-motion self-destruction could have been sown in 2004 when Nujoma surrounded the congress venue with his personal bodyguards and allegedly threatened violence if Hamutenya was elected his successor.
Hamutenya’s camp is convinced still that he won support to be Nujoma’s successor. They believe the team counting the votes was pressured to ensure Pohamba, rather than Hamutenya, would take over as leader of Swapo and Namibia.
“Whether they like it or not, Swapo is splitting up, and Nujoma solely is responsible,” said a former party stalwart now headed for the RDP camp.