WINDHOEK – The grieving ‘exile kids’ who yesterday went to pay their last respects to 26-year-old Frieda Ndatipo at the scene where she was shot dead Wednesday, blocked Swapo Secretary General Nangolo Mbumba’s official vehicle from entering the party premises.
The group expressed anger at Mbumba’s remarks – quoted in Tmedia yesterday – that exile is not an excuse for their confrontational demands for jobs.
Mbumba was quoted saying “being born in Angola is not an excuse” in reaction to Ndatipo’s untimely death.One of the group yesterday said: “We are Swapo. This is our office. It’s our home because our parents died for Swapo. Mbumba is not Swapo. He is a puppet, how can he say being born in Angola is not an excuse?”
“We want our parents back. He must leave our office. [SPYL secretary] Elijah Ngurare should stay, but Mbumba must go. We are being killed for our truth. When are we ever going to enjoy peace in Swapo?” another one shouted.
They accused the Swapo SG of wanting them killed for allegedly saying “we don’t want people coming to our offices to disrupt our work. If they disrupt, we hand them over to the authorities to deal with them.”
When Mbumba arrived at the head offices for duty, the angry group blocked his car and demanded that he step out of the vehicle to address them.
The police were also on alert to prevent a repeat of Wednesday’s violence that ended in the death of Ndatipo.
The group surrounded Mbumba’s vehicle holding photos of the late Ndatipo and also their Swapo membership cards.
One of the ‘struggle kids’ even went out of his way to show Mbumba the middle finger.
Without a word from Mbumba after spending close to 20 minutes surrounded by the crowd, his driver sped off with him in the car.
Prior to confronting Mbumba, the ‘struggle kids’ claimed they only marched to the site near the Swapo head offices to honour Ndatipo’s memory.
As the anguished group gathered they chanted liberation songs.
But the Special Field Force Commander, Commissioner Ben Shikongo approached them to deliver a message from the Namibian Inspector General Sebastian Ndeitunga, which message the crowd did not take kindly to.
“My coming here is not to blame anyone. I am here as a PLAN combatant. I am here to talk to my children. But I am not a politician and I am not going to attend to your plight. The directive of the inspector general is to say, talk to them on my behalf and tell them I regret the death of the late colleague. What he appeals to you is for you to go back to your respective places and avoid violence,” Shikongo said.
Before he could finish his message, the aggrieved crowd demanded that if he is an ex-PLAN combatant, he must speak Oshiwambo not English.
He then conceded to their demand and explained to them in Oshiwambo until he asked the crowd whether they were certain that Ndatipo was shot and killed by the police.
The question angered the group of ‘struggle kids’ who told the commissioner that he must go tell Ndeitunga ‘the police already killed our colleague. We have to fight until the last bullet.’
Shikongo however managed to calm the crowd with the help of other senior police officers and the ‘struggle kids’ eventually dispersed.