Sick Hidipo in Germany
Electoral shock takes its toll HH
By Asser Ntinda

The President of the Rally for Democracy and Progress, RDP, has been in Germany this whole week undergoing medical treatment following the shock result of the National Assembly and Presidential elections in which RDP had dismally failed to dent SWAPO Party’s national popularity in both elections.

Hidipo Hamutenya took a flight to Germany last Sunday after the results started trickling in. He went by Air Namibia regular flight to Frankfurt, which left Hosea Kutako International Airport last Sunday at 21hrs00.

He was reportedly in a serious condition following preliminary results which shocked the hell out of him as he thought RDP would dent SWAPO Party’s two-thirds majority in those elections.

What particularly knocked him off balance was the way people in Ohangwena Region had voted as that was the region where he had persistently claimed to have “solid support.” RDP was blasted in Ohangwena Region.

During the campaign, RDP claimed to have 390 000 registered members “throughout” the country, 70 per cent of which were in Ohangwena Region. RDP pocketed just over 90 000 votes in the National Assembly election throughout the country, while Hidipo got just over 88,000 votes in the Presidential election.

Sources said that he was so shocked that he had to be admitted in a local hospital before being finally flown to Germany for further treatment. He is due to return today, Friday, 11 December 2009.

RDP is one of the eight opposition parties that are disputing the results. They have threatened to take the Electoral Commission of Namibia, ECN, to court but have since chickened out of that option due to a lack of evidence. They have now opted for a petition, which they now want to hand over to the High Court today, Friday 11, 2009.

“Hidipo made a serious political miscalculation,” said one SWAPO Party Central Committee member. “He should not have gone that way. He is such a person who always thought that SWAPO Party revolves around him, rather than the other way round.

“In his thinking, SWAPO was him, and without him, it would automatically disintegrate. Now he has learned a lesson, albeit too late. He has himself to blame. Being a political fool that he is, he has squandered all his political fortunes at one go.

“Now he has turned himself into a laughing stock. Other opposition parties are now angry with him because they thought he would take votes from SWAPO Party and not from them. Those opposition parties are now destroyed. They have themselves to blame too.”

This is not the first time that Hidipo has found himself in a serious condition. In the middle of this year, he collapsed in full public view at the residence of the High Commission of British where there was an event organized to mark Queen Elizabeth’s birthday.

He later claimed that the collapse was caused by “bad food.” Since his defection from SWAPO Party in November 2007, Hidipo has become a butt of many savage jokes in stories and cartoons.

“It is shame that keeps him there in RDP,” said another SWAPO Party Central Committee member. “If he had a way, he would come back to SWAPO Party. His decisions were informed by his own ego. To some of us, the eight seats RDP got was just too many, yet he thinks he deserves more.

“Now he is politically dead. We are waiting for him in the National Assembly where we will mock and vilify him like hell. He is in for a rough ride. Let him come back from Germany and face us. If he thinks that the worst is over, then he is a fool. The worst is to come.

“We will ask him about many things, like the Pidico scandal, the demise of the Development Brigade Corporation, DBC, the N$100 million that went missing from the Offshore Development Corporation, ODC, and many others.” Since his flight to Germany last Sunday, RDP officials have been denying that he has left the country. Later on, they changed the story and confirmed that he was out of the country “attending an opposition parties’ conference” in Germany.

Sources said that the “opposition parties conference” was just a cover-up as he could not leave the country at that crucial time when people were waiting for the results of the elections.

When contacted for comment, RDP’s Director General of Administration, Libolly Haufiku, could neither confirm nor deny that Hidipo was out of the country. “I have nothing to say,” he said. “Write what you want to write. That is all I can say.”