Staff Reporter
PRESIDENT Hage Geingob has condemned the narrative that the South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) is dying and said that the party is not only here to stay, but it is the only party that can move the country forward.
Geingob made these remarks during SWAPO’s Ordinary Central Committee Meeting, where he emphasised that SWAPO has been trusted by sovereigns for the past 32 years and the party has made significant progress during those years in power.
“You can’t make people hate the SWAPO party. The people are SWAPO because SWAPO is the liberator of the country and remained committed to developing Namibia,” he said.
The president recalled a time before SWAPO was in power and said that the people were messed up by “a hundred years of oppression” by the German and apartheid colonial administration, alluding that this has created long-lasting problems. He therefore questioned the expectation that all the problems created during centuries of oppression can be resolved within 32 years, but said that it is obvious that the party has developed the country within that time.
“Windhoek is different from what it was before independence. The Namibia of today is different from the Namibia of 1989 and before,” he added.
Still, Geingob acknowledged that the country is still faced with many problems, but assured that the party is committed to dealing with these issues – and confident in its ability to deliver.
He added that he is aware that certain people are praying for the party’s downfall, but emphasised that the party is here to stay. To support this, he referenced the outcome of the last Swakopmund bi-elections, where SWAPO increased its share of the total votes.
This, he explained, shows that the party has made progress since the last regional elections held in 2020 in that constituency – a fact that he hailed as a sign that the party is not dying.
