By: Uakutura Kambaekua

The ruling Swapo Party will hold its regional conference this weekend at Opuwo to elect new regional leadership for the Kunene Region in a two-horse race for the regional coordinator position.

The elective conference was confirmed by the party’s coordinator in the Kunene region, Tuarungua Kavari, who said that preparations are underway with all candidates’ names already submitted to the headquarters for vetting and verification.

“We have started with the preparation for our regional conference. First of all, we started with the extraordinary district conference mandated by the Swapo party constitution to elect four delegates to the congress and four delegates to the regional conference, we have done it and we have also started already from sectional branches up to the district,” stated Kavari.

“We have also started already from the sectional to the branches up to the district for the process of nomination of candidates for the central committee of the Swapo party and the top three positions in the region,” he added.

The regional leadership concluded its Research Ethics Committee (REC) meeting last week at Khorixas during which the screening and verification of candidates for both the regional top three and central committee were conducted.

Kavari said that 15 candidates were vetted for the central committee, and amongst these, only four will be elected to the central committee come November 2022 for the national congress.

“On 05 August 2022, we conducted an REC meeting in Khorixas where we did the process of verification and screening of candidates for both the top three positions and the central committee. We came up with a list of candidates for the central committee and the candidates for the top three regional positions.”

“Those names, we are going to take to the regional conference and out of those 15 names for the central committee candidates, we are going to elect four candidates for the central committee come November 2022 for the national congress,” noted Kavari.

He said the coordinator position has come down to a two-horse race which will be contested by former Sesfontein constituency councillor and Kunene Regional Council chairperson, Julius ”KK” Kaujova, who also currently serves as the party’s regional treasurer and Thomas Adams, chairperson of Torra conservancy.

The position for Secretary for Information Publicity and Mobilization will be contested by an all-female affair.

“There are two candidates for the regional coordinator position, comrade Tommy Adams and Julius Kaujova, the regional treasurer. There are four females contesting for the information, publicity and mobilisation including four other candidates for the regional treasurer position,” said Kavari.

 

Kavari, who is the incumbent coordinator, a position he held since 2006, will not be seeking another term this time around.

He decided to go on voluntary retirement, thus paving way for new blood to take charge.

Furthermore, the regional coordinator called on the youth to implement the party’s program in order to achieve more in the region in terms of votes, regaining the voter’s trust in the region and nationally.

 

“We have got a five years plan of mobilisation and recruitment process, the youth who are going to take over the region will also implement that program for us to achieve more in the region. we achieved more but we are targeting the 2024 and 2025 elections so that the SWAPO party can improve in terms of votes in the region and nationally,” concluded Kavari.