Swapo Government Or Government’s Swapo: What’s The Difference Anyway?

FROM last year to 2012, the taxpayer will pay N$156 million towards financing of political parties.

Yet, there is no law compelling the parties to account for how they spend the money.
At the moment around 0,2 per cent of the total State revenue is allocated to the funding of political parties each year and the amount is divided among the parties in the National Assembly based on the number of votes received in the previous election.
It means that prior to the 2009 election, Swapo with 55 seats received N$12,5 million while the Congress of Democrats collected N$1,1 million.
What’s worrying is that the parties can spend the money as they like and do not have to account for it as the current Electoral Act only requires parties to disclose foreign funding.
This includes opposition political parties who continue to shout the loudest about lack of Government accountability while they do not account to taxpayers how they spend their own money.
As for the ruling party, we are not only dealing with the “Swapo Party Government” as President Hifikepunye Pohamba and everyone else often refers to it, but also with the ‘Government’s Swapo’.
The party has become a department or agency of the Government and despite mega-funding they’re also using State resources for their campaign.
To qualify my statement, I would like to refer to some invitations we have received over the past three weeks.
Whereas in the past the department of information at the Swapo head office would send out invitations for rallies, these duties seem now to have shifted to ministerial offices.
A case in point was an invitation to Swapo rally at Arandis sent out by the Office of the Deputy Minister of Education on a Government letterhead. It was issued by the private secretary of the deputy minister.
Four days later somebody’s conscience triggered another invitation but this time apparently ‘from the private office of the Deputy Minister’.
All that changed was the date as well as the fact that the letterhead was missing. Same fonts and same person for enquiries!
We have had several public relations officers, personal assistants and private secretaries of ministers sending invitations over the past two weeks.
This is done on Government time, with Government equipment and the civil servants get paid by the Government too.
Of course the ministers follow the example of the President who is apparently on “24-hour duty” as explained last year by State House when the issue came up.
Recently, a group of people tried to get an appointment with the President and they were informed that he would not be available until after the elections because he is campaigning. That’s 24 hours for you!
While it is to an extent understandable that the President’s trips for Swapo business are funded by the taxpayer, it is a bit much for ministers and deputy ministers to get the same treatment while the party collects no less than N$12 million a year from the State coffers.
It adds insult to injury when it is as openly done with the use of letterheads and faxing Swapo rally invitations from Government offices. They even follow the invitations up with telephone calls from ministerial offices.
There is need for a clear separation between Government and Swapo operations.
The ruling party’s policy of deployment of cadres in key positions seems not only to be about ensuring the fulfilment of its manifesto but also the deliberate use of the State’s resources for the benefit of Swapo. For such people, the party’s interests come first and everything else is secondary.
For them it means they work for the Swapo Government, the Government is for Swapo’s use and Swapo is part of the Government’s agencies.
If this can’t stop, party funding must end.