LOCAL politics rarely produces fierce rivalry but the imminent court showdown between expelled comrades Dr Elijah Ngurare together with land activist Job Amupanda, Dumbilukeni Nauyoma and George Kambala and the ruling Swapo party may give birth to an adversely inclined political era that will surely go down memory lane.
In this battle bound to end with one of the two camps left with egg on face, at least N$5 million will be splashed in legal fees in an occurrence that will also be remembered as the first ever case where Swapo has been dragged to court by expelled members contesting their expulsion.
The four SPYL ex-members who were expelled on July 23 for their support and involvement in the Affirmative Repositioning (AR) movement that advocated for equitable access to affordable land in urban areas may also have it at the back of their minds that they may have ignited a success trail when President Hage Geingob recently extended an olive branch to them and agreed to work with them in achieving the dream of seeing every Namibian having decent shelter.
Encouraging also on the part of the expelled comrades is the fact that the decision by the National Youth Council’s representative council to suspend the Namibia National Students Organisation was halted by the High Court recently.
Through the courts, the student organisation has been granted an interdict pending the application for the court to review NYC’s decision to suspend it-this after the NYC suspended the student body as an affiliate for a period of four months, a move that was seen as a way of getting rid of the new leaders at Nanso ahead of the NYC general assembly.
It is however imperative to note that this battle can be avoided and allow both camps to save millions of dollars that may be more useful in the fight against poverty among other pressing needs, if the two camps can engage in dialogue and allow for a progressive peace talk as was with the talks that were held at the backdrop of a looming land loot that was resoundingly avoided through productive dialogue.
President Geingob and Amupanda, Dr Ngurare, Nauyoma and Kambala can come together, reach an amicable solution and avoid a looming court case that threatens to have all the members wash their dirty linen in public.
Peace and comradeship can prevail again between the feuding parties because surely if they can smoke the peace pipe at government level they can do the same at Swapo party level.
As Michael Ignatieff, a former leader of the Liberal Party of Canada said an adversary is someone you want to defeat. An enemy is someone you have to destroy. With adversaries, compromise is honourable; today’s adversary could be tomorrow’s ally. With enemies, on the other hand, compromise is appeasement.
In conclusion, politics appears to rely on no special form of representation. It might be objected that there is a reason for this, and a very commonsensical one at that but political harmony must be negotiated. It is not particularly easy to imagine the form that these negotiations would take but the feuding camps have an opportunity now rather than later to open dialogue that will aid in uniting the masses and allowing harmony in national political progress.
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Politicians should put egos aside
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