How the LPM betrayed the Namibian voters
Late in 2020, I decided to support the LPM in the upcoming election that year and called on voters to support that party. I did this because at the time I felt the urgency to address the urban landlessness problem, to fight against water cuts, and to put forward a clear plan for creating much-needed jobs. Like Swapo in the olden days, LPM in 2019 also spoke about implementing socialist reforms and land redistribution, and like many voters I took them at their word — to my never-ending regret.
In order to advance these urgently needed reforms I was hopeful that under the banner of the LPM we might have sufficient public support to be able to push through some of these reforms to support the struggling working class and middle-class communities. On the basis of the plan I put forward, I was then elected chairperson of the Swakopmund LPM, and drafted a detailed manifesto setting out the plan for ensuring access to urban land, water, basic services and jobs.
I did not know at the time that the LPM was a thoroughly reactionary organization. I became aware of this after a few months of working with them, as I found many of the leading cadre to be rude, chauvinistic, even tribalistic, and — despite their evident incompetence — quite power-hungry. I became very ill and depressed to be associated with such people.
Betraying the voters
The fact is that as soon as they won some seats and took over the local authorities in the South, they started in the middle of the worst pandemic in living memory in early 2021 to cut the lifeline water supply to the most vulnerable households. That is, after promising to restore the dignity of the people. By June, hundreds of people were dying, even at Aranos, mainly due to lack of access to water. This was an out-and-out betrayal, not just of our manifesto commitments, but of the voters who had put them in power.
At Swakopmund, the national LPM leadership appointed one of their friends from Tses to represent the local community on the council, and within minutes of being sworn into office, without any hesitation the new LPM councilor capitulated and went into coalition with IPC and Swakopmund Residents Association, without any conditions or any mandate from the local party. He has since been supporting the IPC and SRA policy with great commitment, despite our manifesto pledges.
Soon, the council would revert to water cuts, which I had fought against for many years, but despite my pleas to the LPM leadership they refused to change policy and insisted on cutting water supply to the poorest of the poor. Readers may recall that I had in late 2020 successfully led the campaign to open all the taps in the country that were locked due to debt, but as soon as they came into office the LPM shut the taps of the poor, even though the evidence was clear at places like DRC that unrestricted access to water was key to maintaining health, hygiene and to saving lives.
I have the correspondence to show how LPM refused over many months to address the problem, or to change their policy of depriving the poor of water, or to admit their culpability in the deaths of so many innocent people, who were deprived of a basic lifeline of water as a result of this inhumane policy, including those who were put at risk due to increased viral transmission in their communities — despite having paid their bills. Instead the party simply denied that it was their policy, and continued cutting water.
Over 2500 people died of Covid in Namibia between the start of April and end of July 2021 (five times more than the entire preceding year) following the start of water cut-offs in March 2021.
At Windhoek the coalition partners could not agree on anything except cutting the water supply of the poor, which LPM went along with.
When the Kronlein community at Keetmanshoop started to rise up and oppose the LPM’s policy with mass protests, the party bosses tried to wash their hands of the bloody mess by simply firing the mayor without any further ado, and blamed the water cuts on her.
They continued to appoint and fire people without due process or disciplinary measures, showing a complete lack of any sense of fairness or natural justice. Meanwhile, they remained impervious to my pleas to stop the water cuts. Despite citing my work in parliament, Seibeb rather blocked me on social media when I criticized their lethal debt collection policy.
Chauvinism in parliament
Things came to a head when MPs Swartbooi and Seibeb, mimicking the charades of the EFF in South Africa, started to insult and disrupt Hage Geingob during his State of the Nation address in parliament, behaving like hooligans, as if they were there to represent themselves and not the dignified people who had voted for them. They shamed the whole nation and their generation with their contemptuous insults to the elected leader of the country.
Now, I have had many irreconcilable differences with Mr Geingob, but never has it occurred to me to attack or insult a person because of their age, as I consider it most disgraceful, as nobody in this world chose when they would be born, so nobody can be blamed for their age, any more than they can be blamed for the color of their skin or the shape of their nose. That is just vulgar ageist discrimination and I reject such chauvinism with my whole heart and soul, and with every fibre of my being.
That unforgivable rudeness and disdain for the public interest was the last straw. I resigned as chairman of Swakopmund LPM branch, as I had come to see that these people were not very different from Swapo, tarnished by nepotism, tribalism, neoliberalism, and political hypocrisy, aiming mostly at self-aggrandizement.
The fact is that the principal leaders of the LPM grew up within and are the direct offspring of Swapo. This is reflected in their shared economic outlook and political culture and practice, which is evidently hostile to the interests of the working class. Like Swapo, they also used socialist rhetoric to attract working class voters like me, only to betray us once in office.
For these reasons, I am sorely indebted to the Namibian public for encouraging people at the time of the election to vote for such an unethical and disgraceful party and for my error of judgment in trusting these mis-leaders. It has taken me a long time to recover from the heartache, betrayal and sorrow, but I resolved to gather my courage and to ask the Namibian nation for forgiveness for trusting these false leaders.
Not one stone redistributed
Like the other political aspirants, LPM leaders promised that there would be land and dignity for all, but up until today they have not redistributed even one square meter of land — not even one stone — to the landless poor, while denying those same voters even the most basic of human rights: access to water. This is the extent of their treachery. The top LPM leaders are landowners, but have for the past four years seemingly forgotten about the landless people they claimed to represent.
On pressing international questions, such as the unprecedented assault by Israel on Gaza, of which the International Court of Justice says there is plausible evidence of genocide, the LPM have been suspiciously silent, while the Palestinians are being forced off their land by European and American settlers. Silence amid a genocide — we must admit — amounts to complicity and endorsement. For this too they must be held to account.
Therefore, when these people come dressed in bright orange and full of promises to ask for your votes again this year, ask them about these things, then show them the door.
