SWAPO School to educate politicians
The Swapo Party School, an institution which has been established recently at the former headquarters of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) in Windhoek West will finally be getting off the ground after more than ten years of deliberations on where party cadres will be trained and educated. The Swapo Party School is scheduled to start operating later this year.
The modules which will be taught at the school includes the history of Namibia and that of the Swapo Party from its own perspective. Furthermore, the politicians will be educated about the struggle for national liberation, different economic models, international solidarity, law, political philosophy and the party’s ideology.
The proposal for the party school was first drafted in 2002 by the Swapo Congress. The task was then given to the former SWAPO Party Secretary for Information and Mobilization, Hidipo Hamutenya.
Last month, newly elected SWAPO Secretary for Information and Mobilization, Comrade Helmut Angula, said that SWAPO Party leaders, be they members of the Central Committee, Politburo or Members of Parliament, must undergo thorough political education. He said that they needed to be coherent in terms of the fundamental objectives of the party. “They need to rally together and not to allow followers to rally behind them as individuals. They must rally behind the party that puts them in positions.”
Swapo Secretary General Nangolo Mbumba earlier this year articulated his view that the party has many members taking up positions within the party and government structures but do not know the history of the party or the functioning of the structures. The Secretary General also said that this institution will prepare Swapo cadres to take over from members of the older generation who have served in the party for some time.
With regard to what will happen to MISA, which operated in the space that will now be occupied by the SWAPO Party School’s, the Economist was informed that the Media Institute has moved to Ausspannplatz in near the central business district.
