Thread: Now Outapi council nixes RDP rally

NSHR - The Outapi Town Council (OTC) has nixed a mass Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) gathering, scheduled for Saturday, November 7 2009. First NSHR heard from a female source at the Omusati Regional Council (ORC) at Outapi last week that a decision had been made by the ORC, led by Omusati Governor Hon. Sackey Kayone, in close consultation with “a high authority to frustrate, as much as possible, RDP efforts to establish any stronghold in the Omusati Region”.

“Now we can say with absolute confidence and surety that our sources were as usual genuine. Because, we have in our possession smoking-gun evidence, in the form a letter signed by OTC CEO Oswin Namakalu (Tel: 065 251 191/2/3), informing RDP’s Omusati Region Elections Chairperson Lameck Kamnyengo Shilongo (54) that OTC had resolved to reschedule the RDP rally to another indefinite date”, revealed NSHR executive director Phil ya Nangoloh this afternoon.

Reached for comment this afternoon, Shilongo confirmed receipt of the OTC letter.

The RDP rally was nixed in favor of a “Workers Star Rally” to be held by the Swapo Party-affiliated National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW) also slated for the same day, being November 7 2009. OTC mistakenly bases it refusal to grant the RDP a venue for its star rally on the provisions of Paragraph 3 of the Code of Conduct for Political Parties, which stipulates:

“Parties shall avoid holding rallies, meetings, marches or demonstrations physically close to one another during the same time of the day”.

However, the law ((i.e. Public Gatherings or Proclamation 1989 (AG 23 of 1989) and Intimidation Proclamation 1989 (AG 24 of 1989)) only prohibit rival gatherings to held in close proximity of less than 500 meters from one another.

“In any case, NUNW is not, by any definition or standard, a political party and, hence, it is not even a signatory to the Code of Conduct for Political Parties, let alone being a party to the 1992 Guidelines for the Conduct of Political Activities by Political Parties in Respect of Elections. Hence, the OTC decision is totally ultra vires from the word go. Such decision is liable to be set aside by a competent Court as was the case recently with the Windhoek College of Education”, said NSHR spokesperson Steven Mvula.

Meanwhile, human rights monitors in the Ohangwena Region this afternoon reported that a group of 10 RDP house-to-house campaigners was showered with tones by a lone-rider Swapo Party activist identified as Jack Nghidengwa after the former requested drinking water from the latter’s homestead. No one was injured, however. The incident occurred this afternoon between 14h00 and 15h00 at Onehanga village. The village is located some 30 kilometers east of Okongo village, in the Ohangwena Region.

In case of additional comment, please call Steven Mvula or Phil ya Nangoloh at Tel: 061 236 183 or 061 253 447 (office hours) or Cell: +264 811 299 886 (Phil) or E-mail: nshr@nshr.org.na or visit: Namibia's National Human Rights Organisation