NEFF accused of defying own constitution

A founding member of the Namibia Economic Freedom Fighters (NEFF) political party has accused the party’s leadership of not complying with its constitution, which states that leaders need to be elected every five years.

It has been eight years since NEFF, which is an affiliate of South Africa’s Economic Freedom Fighters, elected new leadership, with the party formed in 2014.

According to the source who opted to remain anonymous, the party was meant to hold its first people’s assembly, which is the party’s highest decision-making body, in 2019; however, that did not materialise.

The party’s top leadership - led by president Epafras Mukwiilongo - failed to organise the assembly, which led to them holding onto their positions to date, the insider said.

They further questioned how the party managed to recruit Forex traders Michael Amushelelo and Gregory Cloete, appointing them as commissar for economic development and commissar for planning and mobilisation respectively.

Autocratic

“The constitution is clear - the people’s assembly must take place every five years, but we have leaders at the top who have been in power since 2014. If we are now known as a revolution that is fighting for the rights of people, why are we not following our own constitution?

“This is becoming an autocratic party as founding members are being sidelined and we see people joining the party today and tomorrow they are already given senior positions. How fair is that to the loyal members who have been there since day one?”

The source called on the NEFF leadership to start preparing for the people’s assembly to restore faith amongst disgruntled party members.

“They have to act now or else things might not end well for the leadership as a lot of party members are not happy about what is happening,” they argued.

Party response

When contacted for comment, NEFF second-in-command and national coordinator, commissar Kalimbo Iipumbu, confirmed that the party was supposed to hold its assembly in 2019, adding that this could not happen as a result of regional structures that were not properly formed.

He said ahead of the 2019 Presidential and National Assembly elections, a convention was called where it was decided that due to the lack of regional structures, an assembly could not materialise and the leadership at the time was allowed to continue until such a time an assembly was held.

He said that the party is currently sorting out its regional structures, which could see the party holding its first ever assembly later this year.

“What happened after 2014 was that in 2019 we had a convention which we could not elect people. We did not have constituted branches that could form up regional structures that would now bring people together to be called a people’s assembly,” Iipumbu explained.

“So, this year there will be a people’s assembly and it will be determined by the war council and the acting central command team.”

On Amushelelo and Cloete, he said: “The issue of the two commissars who were tasked to head certain portfolios – it’s not like they were put there on an autocratic part of doing things, but to act. They are acting in those positions until the people’s assembly is called”.

Following the 2019 national elections, NEFF scooped two seats in parliament.

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