Communist Party wants SWATF Monies

By Staff Reporter

 The Communist Party of Namibia wants government to pay pension for all former soldiers of the South West Africa Territory Force.

 This is the only Namibian political party supporting communism in the country and has thus advocating for the pension pay outs of the former members of the South West Africa Territory Force (SWATF) to be accorded war veteran status and wants the Namibian government to pay out monies before the proposed referendum.

The National Administrator, of the Communist Party of Namibia Mr. Benson Kaapala who is also the Chairperson of the Caprivi Concerned Group on the Name Change and the former SWATF soldier has appealed to the Namibian nation to vote for change as he wants the Namibian country to change to communism which he describes that his party want the people to have access to the economy of their country.

Mr.Kaapala joined the party to answer to the problems of alleviating poverty among the Namibian nations  and is the only party which is fighting for the interest of the former members of the SWATF who are still claiming for their pension since 1989.

He argued that the recent name change of the Caprivi to Zambezi which he said, it was imposed on the people without their will which he also described that it is similar to the current debate of the referendum to decide whether to allow the former South African Territory Force to be accorded a veteran status and the recent proposal of changing or amending the Constitution of Namibia.

“Communism is the highest model of democracy and is respecting the community… this means it respect the interest of the community “he said.

The communist activist explained that currently, Namibia has a parliament composed of party list representatives, compared to the communist which has proper representatives “if take power the regions will be changed into states”.

He added that the entire political landscape should change the people; some people claim that they are democrats but they don’t consult people to debate or vote for change.

When asked why people did not support his party from the previous elections, Mr.Kaapala pointed out that the reason why the Communist party did not perform better in the previous elections was just because of the electorate (voters) whose brains were washed because of the capitalist states and they were told that communism is a bad model.

According to him, in any country which is using capitalism the poor people will continue to be poor unless to wage war against that as the rich will not allow that “If you look on the laws of this country, the constitution says we are all equal before the laws of the country how equally are we? because if I don’t have money it will be very difficult for me to go to court even if I have a case but the people who are rich they can go to court in a second … so this is capitalism verses communism, communism sees capitalism as light and darkness” stressed Mr. Kaapala.

He said he wants to see to it that every human being must benefit and the distribution of resources must be distributed equally.

He also rejected proposals in changing the Namibian constitution but he supported the amendment of the constitution on the 5 percent threshold for political parties to qualify for seats in Parliament.

The Communist Party Administrator urged the Namibian opposition parties to work hard. “I think it is a wake –up call for the Namibian opposition parties to wake up as they have been sleeping in the parliament. The communist party will make a spice in order to make sure that our people have access to the economy of this country”

Contacted for comment, a Senior Lecturer for Political Science and Administration at the University of Namibia Dr.Lesley Blaauw told Caprivi Vision that it was difficult to comment on the matter of the SWATF veteran status and the referendum as the definition of the Veteran should define the question of who is the veteran.

He also explained to the ideology of the communist party in Namibia that it won’t make it though it is election time with wish less ideologies “ it is an old ideology , SWANU has been doing it in a way of socialism which is the same to SWAPO” he explained.

Dr.Blaauw further thanked the proposal to the bill of the new constitutional amendment on the electoral law as a unified law.