Swapo cites finances, electoral defeat fears for congress delay

Swapo has told the High Court that it deferred its extraordinary congress due to lack of finances and to avoid weakening its chances in the November elections due to potential internal divisions.

On finances, the party said its financial woes are compounded by the construction of its N$700 million headquarters, which has been halted due to outstanding debts.

The party has also demanded an apology from Reinhold Shipwikineni, one of the party members dragging it to court for bypassing its own constitution by deferring an extraordinary congress to 2025 following the death of party president Hage Geingob in February.

In her answering affidavit, Swapo secretary-general Sophia Shaningwa described Shipwikineni and others who have joined him in the lawsuit as abusive and malicious, arguing they merely want to damage the party.

“Shipwikineni is an abusive litigant. He has abused Swapo leadership in a malicious and dehumanising manner. Previously, he acted in a disruptive manner, which caused irreparable damage to the party, by purporting to be suspending the president and assuming office of the president," she noted in court papers.

'Serious divisions'

Citing the possibility of divisions in the party, Shaningwa also informed the court there was a "real possibility that holding an extraordinary congress, judging from past injustices, would have exposed the party to serious and damaging divisions and disunity, which the party simply could not tolerate or accept given that it needed a united membership during the November 2024 election campaign.”

Shaningwa, who has in the past boasted that Swapo has “all the money,” said that, moreover, given a number of ongoing activities, such as the party headquarters’ construction, the party was simply not in a position to fund and sustainably hold an extraordinary congress three months after Geingob's passing.

Legal steps

Article 15(9) of the party’s constitution requires that, under circumstances such as the death of the party head, the central committee – the highest decision-making body among congresses – must call an elective extraordinary congress within three months.

But the party has in the meantime endorsed Vice-President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah as its sole contender after its central committee decided that the extraordinary congress will only take place in April 2025, a decision the court applicants deem a violation of the party constitution.

However, Shaningwa argued the party acted lawfully and within the confines of their party constitution.

“All that needed to be done was the calling of the extraordinary congress within three months. It would then be left to the party to choose which date is most convenient to it with due regard to operational, financial and organisational requirements,” she noted in her filings.

“It was an objective impossibility to hold the extraordinary congress within three months, including the lack of funds.”

Escalated costs

Shaningwa said other impediments include ongoing election campaign activities, the just-concluded regional engagements, a planned electoral college and the construction of the party headquarters.

The Namibian recently reported that the project, which escalated to over N$1 billion, has been halted because of an outstanding N$100 million.

The lawsuit was brought by Swapo members Shipwikineni, Petrus Shituula, Joshua Martins, Erich Shivute and Aina Angula, represented by lawyer Richard Metcalfe. They also wrote a letter to the Electoral Commission of Namibia, in which they insisted that Nandi-Ndaitwah should not be registered as a presidential candidate for the November election due to the manner in which she has attained that candidacy.

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