Erasmus Shalihaxwe
Landless People’s Movement (LPM) councillor Ivan Skrywer says opposition-led councils will not be forced to implement Swapo’s manifesto or its ideologies.
Skrywer, who serves on the City of Windhoek council, was addressing the media on Tuesday when he made this remark.
He was responding to a meeting held last week by urban and rural development minister James Sankwasa, which the LPM described as intimidation under the guise of consultation.
During that meeting, Sankwasa criticised opposition councillors for taking key decisions without ministry approval.
He warned them against working independently, saying he would enforce the law if necessary.
Sankwasa said Namibia is a unitary state, as outlined in the Constitution, and accused opposition councillors of acting as if they were running separate governments.
Skrywer rejected Sankwasa’s remarks, accusing him of trying to intimidate councillors into following the ruling party’s agenda.
“There is a reason why Swapo is not ruling in these regions and local authorities. The sovereign has rejected and moved away from them with their ideologies, and we were given the chance. There is no way the minister can come and tell us, abandon your political ideologies, abandon your political programmes and follow this Swapo manifesto. There is no way. I must put it on record that we will never be part of this Swapo nonsense manifesto,” he said.
He said Swapo did not expect the outcome of the 2020 regional and local elections, where it lost control in some areas.
“We found the City of Windhoek without a CEO. It was all about courts and newspapers every day. We fixed that, and there is a CEO now. We found city police officers who could not even carry firearms anymore because they were depressed due to tribalism, nepotism, and victimisation on tribal lines. We have fixed the city police to a point of stability now. Are you telling me that we must continue with the Swapo ideology, we must continue with the Swapo program that made state institutions to be harassed?” Skrywer said.
