CLANDESTINE political manoeuvres and machinations to unseat President Hifikepunye Pohamba are heightening despite the ruling Swapo Party’s endorsement and Founding Father and former President Sam Nujoma’s endorsement of his candidacy in the November elections.

Some ambitious presidential hopefuls have been exposed by their desperate attempts to foil Pohamba’s bid as the candidate by campaigning through media bankrolled by slush funds from wanted fugitives.
We have it on good account that some wanted fugitives resident in the country  have been promised clemency should their handlers succeed in their anti-Pohamba campaign to bar them from standing for a second term.
It is apparent from the propaganda campaign that numerous attempts have been made to depict Pohamba as an indecisive President who has failed during his first term and will not be up for the task if given a second term.
Such propaganda campaigns feed partly on Pohamba’s gentle approach; his transparent and collegiate leadership style which accommodates divergent views, characteristics which in themselves constitute an honourable legacy.
His deep-seated dislike for corruption and wasteful expenditure of public resources for self-enrichment certainly forms part of his legacy, and seems to have buttressed certain organisations’ determination to undermine him.
While part of the campaign is meant to show Pohamba’s weaknesses, evidence on the ground does not show him as such especially after his stance on the appointment of the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation’s directorship. 
Portraying Pohamba’s gentler governance as an indecisive weak President could prove disastrous to these obstructionists because of his penchant to make calculated decisions.
Teaming up with fugitives and using slush funds for egoistic presidential ambitions is tantamount to political moral bankruptcy and disregards political legitimacy and the Swapo Party congress Resolution No. 1 of 2008 which endorsed Pohamba as the party’s sole candidate.
Those resorting to such campaigns bankrolled by illicit funds forget that during the apartheid era, the South African Government used such funds to set up The Citizen, employed bribery tactics and various other subterfuge activities in Namibia.
They also forget that such funds were used in secret plans by the apartheid Government to interfere in Namibia’s first democratic elections in 1989.
These examples should serve as a strong warning to the people behind the anti-Pohamba media campaigns of the consequences of using slush funds to undermine democratically elected leaders.
Notwithstanding the origins of such funds, the use of the media to pursue a morally vacuous political agenda constitutes abuse of the press and generates negative sentiments against the media.
In any case, media bankrolled by slush funds has no social value apart from being a propaganda tool which does not work in the interests of the nation and cannot survive without the people’s backing.
We can also not downplay the role played by the Swapo Party wings in making their stance clear on Pohamba as the sole candidate, particularly the Swapo Party Youth League (SPYL) which has attracted the ire of the press for alleged factionalism.