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Affirmative Repositioning leader Dr Job Amupanda denied rifts within the movement after two top leaders failed to attend a press conference he held in Windhoek.

Amupanda announced that the movement was reorganising, institutionalising and formalising by going national.

The AR national spokesperson Simon Amunime and AR elections chief Paulus Paulus were conspicuously absent. Dimbulukeni Nauyoma, who heads the AR political education and mass mobilisation department, is imprisoned.

Paulus told The Villager on Tuesday that he is parenting his three beautiful kids and that it’s a holiday.

“My family came first. Without my family, I’m nothing,” he said, adding that he had just got back to the north from Windhoek.

“I went for some matters and later went to pay my two brothers a visit at Correctional prison, Dimbu and Amushelelo. On other things like a press conference, I have no clue. But I wish those who attended the pressor good luck. My absence at the pressor can’t stop anything in the movement from happening. Things are done collectively there but not solely,” Paulus said.

Amunime said he was in Windhoek and that he, too, was at the prison visiting Nauyoma and Amushelelo.

“I am looking after my brother Dee’s family. His mother is not feeling well. Dee has two kids, and Amushe has a daughter,” Amunime said.

Asked whether they were still members of the movement, both Amunime and Paulus said they were, as far as they know, still members.

Five people within the movement, however, told The Villager that the situation in the movement was not what it seemed, especially after Amupanda and Illse Keister, councillors at the City of Windhoek, refused a proposed rotation system to allow others to make money.

The sources said the movement had a meeting where they voted on the issue, but Amupanda apparently told the others that he would only leave in 2025.

“Both Job and Illse are employed. Job is a lecturer at Unam. He gets paid, and he is being paid at the council. Dimbulukeni and George (Kambala) are not employed. The plan was to rotate the position, but Job refused,” the sources said.

Asked if it was possible to rotate, the sources said the movement simply had to write a notification letter announcing that they were recalling their deployees.

“The IPC has been doing it,” the sources said, adding that Amupanda and Keister are about themselves.

According to the sources, there has never been any harmony in the movement because Amupanda wants to be the only one at the top.

“Imagine that he made himself the chief activist, but Dimbulukeni is head of the political education and mass mobilisation department. Job has no deputy. This is a movement started by three people, yet only one gives top position while others are just heads of departments,” the sources said.

The sources said when Nauyoma was arrested, Amupanda did not issue a statement, but when the current mayor of Windhoek, Sade Gawanas, was arrested, a statement came within minutes.

“Amupanda released a statement when Dee was arrested, saying that AR activists who participated in the NEFF-inspired demonstrations acted individually. What does that mean for Dee? Does it mean that since Dee was arrested for participating in the demonstrations, he is on his own?” the sources asked.

On Tuesday, Amupanda mentioned Nauyoma said the movement was working with lawyers for the release of Nauyoma and that all activists should remain calm and hopeful.

The same source said Amunime was announced as the only person whose office had the authority to issue AR statements, but when the Namibia Economic Freedom Fighters called action against the Chinese, the movement issued an unsigned statement.

“Even the invitation for Tuesday’s press conference was not signed by Simon. Another person Tuhafeni Hangula signed it. What happened to Simon?” the source asked.

Although Amunime yesterday said he had just seen the invitation on social media, he refused to comment further.

“People are not happy with the situation in the movement. This is why Roger Dausab will be announced as the Namibia Economic Freedom Fighters candidate for the Swakopmund constituency,” the sources said.

Dausab stood for the same constituency on the AR movement ticket in 2020.

When Amupanda was asked during the press conference whether there was infighting in the movement, he said journalists should not do bidding for other people.

According to Amupanda, the decisions do not stop because a member is not there.

“It defies logic. In the past, if there was a programme of action, we would just say George (Kambala) let us, and we would go. It is important that we move away from informalities from the first of June,” Amupanda said.

Amupanda said the head of legal and the head of finance did not attend the meeting.

“In the past, it would be five or three people. Now we are talking about the interim national council. The decision is no longer by two people; it is by three or four,” he said.

The Villager asked Amupanda three follow-up questions which he did not respond to directly but forwarded the reorganisation, institutionalisation and formalisation statement.

These are the questions: i) did he refuse to be rotated as a councillor at the City of Windhoek to give others a chance to make money? ii) Are you acting alone in the movement without consulting others? iii) the movement announced that Simon Amunime is the only one who signs off the AR statements. We have seen about three statements that he did not sign. What is happening?