Namibia's ruling SWAPO party axed a member of parliament on Thursday in the closing hours of a high-profile judicial inquiry that has seen a businessman charged with fraud shoot himself dead in police custody, Reuters reported. MP Paulus Kapia, secretary-general of the SWAPO Youth League (SPYL), had already resigned as deputy minister of transport a fortnight ago when fellow accused, businessman Lazarus Kandara, shot himself hours after being arrested and charged with fraud. The case has shaken SWAPO, the dominant political force in the southern African country since its independence from South Africa in 1990. "Kapia has not been expelled from the party. He is still an ordinary member of the SWAPO Party. He has only been relieved of all and any position that he occupied in the party until the SPYL completes its investigation," SWAPO Secretary General Ngarikutuke Tjiriange told reporters on Thursday. Kapia and fellow SPYL figure Ralph Blaauw are at the centre of an inquiry trying to trace 30 million Namibian dollars ($4.74 million) belonging to the state-owned Social Security Commission that vanished after being invested with Avid Investment, an asset management company headed by Kandara. --More 2232 Local Time 1932 GMT
