Namibia: Swapo Youth League leaders in Facebook spat

Relationships between some Swapo Party Youth League (SPYL) members have reached rock bottom. The main characters in the latest saga are SPYL secretary Elijah Ngurare, executive member Clinton Swartbooi and Henny Seibeb – an employee at the ruling party’s headquarters.

Swartbooi’s unemployment is at the centre of the current storm.

Seibeb is understood to have sent Ngurare a message last week, asking what efforts were being made to employ Swartbooi in Government. Swartbooi, a staunch activist, has been unemployed for longer than a year.

Yesterday afternoon, Ngurare said he informed Seibeb that he (Ngurare) wished the decision to employ someone in Government lay with him. According to the youth league secretary, Seibeb was not impressed with this response and threatened to resign “in solidarity” with Swartbooi.

Ngurare further said that he had made various attempts to seek employment for Swartbooi by even contacting ministers – to no avail.

When approached for comment yesterday, Seibeb denied having threatened to resign.

“No, it’s a lie. I have not made such a comment,” he said, but admitted having enquired about “Swartbooi’s situation”.

A Facebook fight had erupted earlier after Ngurare had said on this website that one should make time for one’s loved ones irrespective of how busy you are. Seibeb responded by saying that unemployment among the youth was a particular concern and that they too should be looked after, he said.

“I was not referring to Swartbooi. I was just talking in general.” Ngurare, however, responded and referred to Swartbooi’s dire straits, which set the table for a fight that was still in full swing by yesterday.

According to Ngurare, he received an SMS from Swartbooi that Swartbooi “did not appreciate that my surname was published in the manner as was and that a broader and international audience is given free information about a personal and painful matter such as that (Swartbooi’s unemployment).” Swartbooi referred to Ngurare as “Mr” and not “comrade” as usual.

Ngurare and Seibeb’s references to this have been deleted from Facebook in the meantime.

All that was visible was an apology from Ngurare in which he said: “In my post of SMS to friends in which a mention was made of Mr Swartbooi and other unemployed party activists and youth in general. Mr Swartbooi sent me an SMS to complain [about] his name appearing thereon. Thus, to him and his family, I regret the pain caused in this platform. As SPYL, we shall continue to strive for reducing unemployment among our youth in all 13 regions and 107 constituencies of our country.”

Swartbooi was not prepared to comment yesterday afternoon, saying that it was an internal SPYL issue.

- June 29, 2010 by Denver Kisting

.................

Source: www.namibian.com.na/index.php [tt_news]=69493&no_cache=1 (accessed on 30.06.10)