lost "his vigilance on the red carpet, doing the danger dance, which doesn't stop". On 23 August Namibian Foreign Affairs Minister Utoni Nujoma said officially, Namibia still has diplomatic relations with the Gaddafi government. On 22 September main opposition party - Rally for Democracy and Progress - recognised NTC, when the government decided not to recognise until democratic elections are held. : On 3 September, President Daniel Ortega said that it refused to recognise the National Transitional Council of Libya. : Foreign Minister Bernard Membe said on 28 August that the Tanzanian government supports the AU's decision not to recognise the NTC, but said his government will recognise the NTC if it takes over the Gaddafi government's remaining strongholds and establishes executive, legislative, and judicial organs for the whole country. Otherwise, he said Dodoma will hold off on recognising a new government of Libya until nationwide elections are held. The Libyan Embassy has taken down the rebel flag after hoisting it the embassy buildings in Dar es Salaam on 27 August. The flag was removed before the 48-hour ultimatum given by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation ended. The green flag was not hoisted again. The Embassy also apologised to the Tanzanian government. Bernard Membe, Minister of International Cooperation and Foreign Affairs of Tanzania, said on 30 September that contacts between the NTC and the Government of Tanzania are "underway to normalize". On 9 November Minister of Foreign Affairs of Tanzania said that his country will not recognise NTC unless the Libyan government will fulfill conditions set by the Africa Union. : In March, the government of President Hugo Chavez said that it refused to recognise the Benghazi government and insisted that only the previous government was legitimate. Reinaldo Bolivar, Venezuela's Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs for Africa, also insisted that "there were no problems until a coalition of US and European countries began the shelling", and expressed his support for a "diplomatic solution to the crisis". On 23 August, as major rebel successes on the battlefield including in Tripoli coincided with a wave of recognitions for the NTC, Chavez again stated that he would only recognise the government of Gaddafi. Chavez also accused the West of "kicking" and "spitting" on "the most basic elements of international law" (remarking that "This is like the caveman era"), and saying the United States "arranged this war. They provided the arms, the