Helao Nafidi council tussle continues

Helao Nafidi council tussle continuesNghidimbwa sworn in for a second time Amid a pending court case, Swapo town councillor Ester Nghidimbwa was sworn in at Helao Nafidi earlier this month. The saga between Swapo councillors Ester Nghidimbwa and Lucia Nghililewanga shows no sign of abating soon after Nghidimbwa was sworn in for a second time at the Helao Nafidi town council on 2 December.

The Ohangwena Swapo regional coordinator, Hafeni Hatutale, says nothing could have been done to prevent the once-axed councillor from being sworn in to serve on the council although she has a pending court matter against the party.

Nghidimbwa''s swearing in two weeks ago has irked Lucia Nghililewanga, who was legitimately elected during the 2015 local authority elections and lost her position to Nghidimbwa.

Last year on 4 December, much to her surprise, she was not sworn in and instead the party chose to replace her with Nghidimbwa who did not feature on the candidate list as she was a candidate for the regional council election for the Oshikango district.

Swapo had won six seats in the council. Three of the councillors were supposed to be from the Ohangwena district, including Nghililewanga, while two are from Engela and one is from Oshikango.

The Ohangwena Swapo office however chose to replace Nghililewanga with Nghidimbwa in order to “balance the scales” because she hails from Oshikango. This was in order for each of the three districts to have two representatives.

This move was rejected outright by Nghililewanga, who asked Swapo''s top officials why she was replaced after she was voted into office by the electorate.

The head office in Windhoek responded to her complaints and after several attempts to rectify the situation a decision was taken to remove Nghidimbwa from office with immediate effect in August for Nghililewanga to claim her rightful position.

Instead, Nghidimbwa dragged the party to the High Court where the case will resume in February 2017. Nghidimbwa won the first round of the case. She asked the court to stop the reinstatement of Ngililewanga and she was granted the order.

Yesterday Hatutale told Namibian Sun that Nghidimbwa''s court case was ongoing, therefore nothing could be done to stop her from being sworn in.

“The Helao Nafidi case is in the court and there is nothing anyone can do at this time,” Hatutale said.

Swapo spokesperson Helmut Angula said the reason why the party allowed Nghidimbwa to be sworn in was because it was the normal procedure that a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

However, sources within the council told Namibian Sun that Nghidimbwa was absent from monthly council meetings for three consecutive months since August, when she was presented with the dismissal letter from Swapo''s secretary-general, Nangolo Mbumba.

The source said only at the November council meeting did she show up and attend as a councillor.

Helao Nafidi mayor Eliaser Nghipangelwa said Nghidimbwa was absent from council meetings because she was always busy and informed the council of that fact. He added that Nghidimbwa was not the only councillor absent from council meetings this year.

KENYA KAMBOWE