Davida Ndahafa Kanamwene in her bloodied CoD T-shirt.
Human rights monitors in the Oshana and Khomas regions over the weekend reported several incidents of pre-voting violence and intimidation directed against opposition political parties.
In all cases ruling Swapo party activists in various capacities are accused of being the perpetrators. In one incident a female Congress of Democrats (CoD) supporter accused a male Swapo party activist of assaulting her over her CoD T-shirt.
Davida Ndahafa Kanamwene (21) (see the attached colour picture or visit www.nshr.org.na), told human rights defenders that a certain Ben assaulted her on 23 October 2009 in the Uupindi township of Oshakati. Kanamwene sustained right eye and head injuries.
A criminal case (Oshakati CR 3608/10/09) of assault has been laid against Ben at the Oshakati police station. Human rights monitors have established that the suspect has since been arrested.
In yet another act of intimidation against CoD supporters at Oshakati, NSHR reported on 21 October 2009 that members of the Oshakati police had nabbed (Oshakati CR 158/10/09) another alleged Swapo party activist for seizing, then burning down a CoD flag also in the Upindi township of Oshakati.
In the latest incident of intimidation in the Oshana region, villagers have accused Swapo party’s regional councilor for the Ongwediva constituency of scheming to oust a local female kindergarten operator simply because she is seen as a Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) member.
Residents of Elombe village, some 12 kilometers east of Oshakati, capital of the Oshana region, on 22 October 2009 told human rights monitors that they had foiled a plot by firebrand Swapo party regional coun cilor Fikameni Ekandjo to incite villagers against kindergarten teacher, Ms. Kadjala Ngenomesho, at the village.
Through a popular community service call-in morning programme on the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) radio on 21-23 October, councillor Ekandjo “invited” villagers and teachers as well as local village headman Hailonga to an “extraordinary meeting” at the kindergarten.
Prior to the meeting villagers bitterly complained at the local NSHR office at Oshakati that councillor Ekandjo was plotting to have Ms. Ngenomesho summarily dismissed from her kindergarten because she wore an RDP cap previously. However, the alleged plot failed.
In three separate incidents in the Khomas region also over the weekend, human rights monitors filed several reports of intimidation and violence directed at RDP members and supporters by alleged Swapo party activists. In one incident a certain Shikuloya Shikulo, resident of the Mix squatter camp, 20 kilometers north of Windhoek, allegedly threatened to knife to death his girlfriend, Pehehafo Moses (24), after she had joined RDP at the camp.
Ya Shikulo, who is a street vendor at the camp, also destroyed Moses’s RDP campaign materials. Moses threatened to lay a criminal charge of inchoate assault and malicious destruction of property against ya Shikulo at the Wanaheda police station.
In a second incident of intimidation also at the said camp, Erastus Sakeus (24) has been evicted from his home by his uncle, a certain Iyambo ya Moses, after the former formally joined RDP.
Also at the Mix squatter camp several Swapo party activists, led by a certain Sakeus Aipanda, who claimed to be the secretary of Mix camp residents committee, blocked RDP campaigners from entering the camp. The Swapo party activists claimed that the camp was a “no go area” for opposition parties.
Although a group of ten police officers arrived from Windhoek and tried to explain to the Swapo party activists that blocking other parties from campaigning anywhere was illegal in terms of the Electoral Act 1992 (Act 24 of 1992) as well as the Code of Conduct for Political Parties, the Swapo party activists would not budge.
The RDP team had to withdraw in order to avoid a violent confrontation. In yet another incident of eviction against yet another RDP member, Lucky Simeon Shikongo (24), resident of Erf 1115, Ongaka Street, Okuryangava, was evicted from his home by his father because of RDP.
Shikongo told human rights monitors that his father, who is a Special Field Force member since 1996, set alight all Shikongo’s four RDP T-shirts and caps as well as various campaign materials. Shikongo also accused his father of punching him in the face with a fist.
Shikongo’s sink-plate (corrugated iron) bedroom has also been dismantled allegedly on the orders of his father. The Code of Conduct for Political Parties, read in conjunction with Section 43(2) of the Electoral Act 1992 (Act of 24 of 1992), as amended, outlaw intimidation in any form as well as the disfigurement or the destruction of campaign materials of other political parties.
