Former cabinet minister Kazenambo Kazenambo has vehemently defended the ruling Swapo party against a flood of accusations that it benefitted from dirty money that came from Fishcor to fund its election campaign.
Speaking on the Early Morning Scoop, Kazenambo challenged those claiming that the party is at the center of the scandal to bring tangible evidence.
In the absence of this “smocking gun”, the firebrand politician said Swapo was innocent for now, adding that the Anti-Corruption Commission is “tainting our brand for nothing”.
The politician-cum-businessman said Swapo the organization should not be misconstrued to be its own supporters, saying these two are worlds apart.
As such, any party member accused of corruption should not mean the party is corrupt, he added.
“Those that are committing scandals in the name of Swapo, let them be taken care of within the bounds of law but until then, produce the smocking gun here. There is no smoking gun here! We are not dealing with the Watergate scandal. The Watergate scandal affected them there in America. It was not speculated,” he said.
The Watergate saga stems from the United States and brought down the administration of President Richard Nixon between 1972 and 1974.
Because Swapo is not involved, the brand is unaffected, Kazenambo says.
“This is mere speculation. If the money landed in the account let us investigate how the money landed in the account.
Pressed on why at this time the Swapo led government greenlighted a budget that purportedly underfunded the Anti-Corruption Commission, Kazenambo said the budget is not allocated by the party.
He said connecting the funding of the ACC to the Fishrot and Swapo diluted the whole debate describing it as “journalistic maneuvering”.
“It is really cooking and spinning in a manner that the whole food is not cooked. Because if you are talking about the under-funding of the ACC, the very ACC that is tainting our brand for nothing, ACC must deal with the people that they have arrested. Are they now pressurizing us to pay the money?” he prodded.
He said just as they were labeled terrorists in the struggle years and outlived those labels to be liberators, in the same fashion, “ Swapo will outlive Fishrot”.