Swapo 101: How to get ahead in party politics

Swapo 101: How to get ahead in party politics

By: Christof Maletsky

THE 2012 leadership race is already underway in Swapo, with several aspiring leaders preparing to make moves for key positions over the next couple of months.

That is also why a recent article in a local weekly newspaper about whether the ruling party is ready for a non-Owambo leader has stirred up tensions in the top echelons of Swapo.
People do not want to speak openly about their aspirations but all have the desire to one day lead “the mighty party”.
In Swapo you only progress when you don’t show ambition that you want to become president, vice president, secretary general or deputy secretary general – the key top positions for anyone with the desire to lead Namibia one day.

FORTUNES
WAX AND WANE

Just look at how some people have scored at the various congresses and electoral colleges over the past few years.
In 2002 – two years before the 2004 extraordinary congress which elected President Hifikepunye Pohamba as the party presidential candidate – both Hage Geingob and Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana were seen as the rising stars in party circles.
Until that time both were key players in party inner circles: Geingob was Prime Minister while Ithana was Namibia’s first female Attorney General.
When Geingob declined to accept a lesser position of Local Government Ministry, former President Sam Nujoma left him out of his Cabinet. That was in August 2002.
His star began to wane and the following month he failed to be re-elected to the Politburo – he received only 33 votes from the 83-member Central Committee.
At the same congress, Ithana placed 23rd in the election for CC seats.
However, when it became apparent that she was supporting Geingob, she was left out of the Swapo Party Women’s Council executive committee of which she had been a member for many years.
That was when Environment Minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah strengthened her influence over the female structures of the organisation and came in at number 14 during the elections for the Central Committee.
The 2002 congress also saw the likes of Prime Minister Nahas Angula (number one), Hidipo Hamutenya (13) and Helmut Angula (15) scoring high.
Fast-forward less than five years and you have a completely different picture.
Hamutenya displayed ambition for the Swapo leadership and was fired by Nujoma a few days before the party elections in 2004.
During the 2007 congress Nahas Angula came in at number seven and two years later dropped four places to 11. Helmut Angula was at 35 in 2007 but nose-dived to 67 two years later while Nandi-Ndaitwah came in at 52.

LESSONS LEARNT

So what changed the way the delegates saw the candidates?
The answer is short and sweet: Ambition.
Look at Minister Jerry Ekandjo and how he’s played his cards carefully.
During the November 2007 congress, Ekandjo’s supporters were ‘all systems go’ to challenge Geingob for the party’s vice-presidency but withdrew hours before the elections “in the interest of party unity”.
That was after some in the party said it would have been “suicidal for Ekandjo” to stand “especially as we are trying to get unity back in the party”. The watchword at that congress was “guided democracy” and it was introduced by the Swapo Party Youth League, who also flatly opposed any additional nominations from the floor.
The same congress also saw the late John Pandeni withdraw against Ithana in the race for the Secretary General position.

‘DOG EAT DOG’

Ngarikutuke Tjiriange stood against her and has become history.
Ekandjo has played his cards very well but so has Ithana in the wake of the 2002 fiasco she found herself embroiled in.
With the likes of Ndaitwah and Helmut Angula now out of the way, it will be a game of “dog eat dog” as the party prepares to elect a new vice president.
In 2004, in the run-up to the Swapo electoral college, Alexactus Kaure wrote: “I’m not here to endorse a specific candidate.
But to be frank, of the three candidates, Pohamba is not presidential material, has no national appeal, and we don’t even know what he stands for or what his views are on many of the issues that confront our country today, although he has been a senior minister”.
As everybody knows, Pohamba went on to become not only the party’s leader but the President of Namibia.
In Swapo the key is not to show ambition as the likes of Utoni Nujoma, Nangolo Mbumba and Abraham Iyambo are doing. In the process they are moving up in the hierarchy and can’t be ruled out – especially in the race for secretary general and deputy secretary general come 2012.

* This article first appeared in The Namibian