Okahandja days counts ...as SWAPO flexes muscles

By Levi Upula and Anna Nakambale

Okahandja will feel the heavy presence of SWAPO Party until the by-election slated for Wednesday next week is over. The blue, red and green colours of the ruling Party are almost everywhere – on trees, houses, cars and bicycles.

Last weekend, it was Founding President Dr. Sam Nujoma’s turn to urge Okahandja residents to rally behind SWAPO Party and vote for its candidate, Cde Steve Biko Booys.

As usual, Okahandja Soccer Stadium was packed to capacity, with the large chunk of the crowd made up mainly of the youth, most of them the bornfrees who will vote for the first time, come Wednesday.

The Founding President received a hero’s welcome with the crowd cheering as Ndilimani thrilled it with the popular “Sam Owuli Pen, Yelulee Pandela….”(Sam! Where are you…? Raise the flag) on his arrival. He was welcomed by the SWAPO Party leadership led by the Party’s Vice President, Dr. Hage Geingob.

The attraction was a threeyear old girl Nghituvali Jafet Shilongo who led members of the SWAPO Party Pioneer Movement with that song again, commanding them to attention and surprising the Founding Father, who later volunteered towards the girl, lift it up and took her to the VIP tent.

Before he introduced the Founding President, Vice President Dr. Geingob told the crowd that seeing such a huge crowd, it was obvious that SWAPO Party was going to sweep the election with a landslide victory.

“Now, I want to introduce to you a person who is unique to Namibia,” said Dr. Geingob. “He is an icon of the liberation struggle. He led and steered our struggle for independence to its logical conclusion. He is not a Ngandjera. He is not a Damara. He is not a Herero. He is not a Kavango. He is a Namibian.”

Dr. Nujoma said that SWAPO Party’s Election Manifesto was the only one which was scientific, set realistic objectives and implementable in order to accelerate socio-economic development in the country.

“In fact,” he said, “the SWAPO Party government does not make empty promises. We have in fact asked your mandate to continue with the development programmes that we have implemented over the past 19 years, while we will also implement new ones.”

The Founding President cited various projects initiated and carried out by the SWAPO Party government since independence, such as roads, houses, clinics, hospitals, the deepening of Walvis Bay and Luderitz and the Northern Railway Extension from Tsumeb to Oshikango via Ondangwa.

He said that Okahandja Constituency could be enhanced for food production, urging the town’s Municipality to allocate land from its town lands to the communities to embark upon vegetable and fruit production to improve their livelihoods.

Plans are underway to build 250 houses in Extension 6 of Okahandja. Oshetu Settlement would soon be formalized with complete sewerage system, water and electricity supply to improve the living standard of the people there.

The development of the upper market housing scheme and golf estate for Okahandja will also be accelerated. Okahandja Hospital had been upgraded, while a new clinic was built at Nau-Aib. New more development projects for Okahandja are on the way and the Founding President called on the residents of Okahandja to vote for Cde Steve Biko Booys as he was the only candidate who would accelerate socio-economic development in Okahandja Constituency.

“As members of the SWAPO Party,” said Dr. Nujoma, “we must enter this By-Election united and with only one common purpose, namely to ensure that SWAPO Party candidate, Cde Booys wins with a resounding victory".