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MINISTER of labour, industrial relations and employment creation Utoni Nujoma, says Swapo is under severe threat from the formation of many political parties trying to take over.

He says Swapo is not the only party under threat as many of the national liberation movements in southern Africa are also under threat from “western imperialists countries, which are working hard to take over from national liberation movements”.

Nujoma said this at the Former Plan Combatants Association (FPCA) reunion at Ongwediva on Saturday.

“In South Africa, we have the ANC, and in Angola the ruling party, the MPLA, almost lost the elections, and Unita almost won those elections. The same with Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

“The western imperialist countries are working hard to reverse the evolution in southern Africa. So this is a timeous opportunity for us to chant the way forward and make sure Swapo retains its position in all elections,” he said.

Nujoma said Swapo is under threat because of the formation of too many political and “tribal” parties in the country.

“You have the so-called Landless People’s Movement, and the Independent Patriots for Change, led by Panduleni Itula, who has lived in the United Kingdom for the past 32 years after independence, and now he wants to come and rule Namibia.

“Those are some of the challenges we are faced with. We must unite and we must make sure we look after the welfare of ourselves first, the welfare of our children, and our descendants,” he said.

FPCA spokesperson Charles Mubita, said the association is currently affiliated to Swapo and will be sending delegates to the upcoming elective congress slated for November.

“One of our aims of going to the congress is to appeal to the Swapo party for Plan (the People’s Liberation Army of Namibia) to be reconstituted and retained as a wing of the party, because by doing that the party will be strengthened, and the

campaign machinery of the party will be made stronger, which will enable the party to perform better in the 2024 national elections,” he said.

Mubita said Swapo performed poorly in the last national elections, hence the need for party members to restrategise and mobilise themselves.

“The party is still strong, but in the last national elections it did not perform well, and we are not happy . . . That is why we want things to go back to what they were, and for the party to return to power with a two-thirds majority.

“After the congress we are going to establish structures in all the regions, and that will be the return of all combatants, as we understand politics and we have been in politics.

“We were not only firing guns, we were active politicians as well,” Mubita said.

“The struggle for the economic emancipation of all the Namibians requires heroes and heroines to make sacrifices . . . and this is the time for us to step up to these challenges,” said Abraham Nangolo, the chairperson of the association.

More than 600 members of the FPCA from all the regions travelled to Ongwediva, for three days to commemorate its first ever reunion after 32 years of Namibian independence.

The FPCA was formed in November 2020.

Nujoma, Daniel Kashikola, former member of parliament (MP) Pendukeni Iivula-Iithana, and several

other MPs are members of the FPCA.