– Present Crisis Spells Doom Unless … By Kuvee Kangueehi Windhoek A leading political analyst has warned that the Congress of Democrats (CoD) is nearing “the end of the road” unless the party’s top leadership seriously addresses its crisis. Speaking from South Africa, Joseph Diescho said the recent fallout in the top leadership clearly shows that the “fish is rotten at the head” and it is time for the CoD president Ben Ulenga to listen to fellow democrats to save the party from dismantling. The CoD has been haunted by a leadership crisis since its 2004 congress and recently held an extraordinary congress to address the problem. However, the crisis exploded at the extraordinary congress, which was held at Keetmanshoop almost two weeks ago, with one faction led by its former vice-president Nora Schimming-Chase and former secretary-generals Kalla Gertze and Ignatius Shixwameni staging a walkout at the meeting. Diescho said Ulenga can no longer afford to ignore fellow party members and that an objective mediator should be brought in to listen to the grievances of both parties. The analyst also called on Ulenga to declare the election results of the extraordinary congress null and void. “The leaders must put aside their personal problems and redefine the role of the party in the Namibian society.” He added that the collapse of CoD would not only be a loss to Ulenga and his party members, but to the entire country as it would not be good for democracy. Diescho noted that the situation also plays into the hands of the ruling party Swapo, and the country should look for new way of managing politics. Just like in the Swapo Party where only Sam Nujoma can restore the party, Ulenga is the only one able to fix the mess in the CoD, he said. Diescho advised Ulenga to make a graceful exit from the party leadership to allow the project that he started to flourish. Another analyst Bill Lindeke said he was not surprised by the rift in the top leadership and said it has been predominant in Namibian politics. History clearly shows that many political parties in the country have splits because of personality fights, he said, also noting that the new development in the party is not good for democracy. The party was started to give a new dynamic to politics but it is now clear that the dream will never be fulfilled. He noted that the split in the party was clearly in the top leadership and not in the rank and file. Lindeke observed that the fact that the crisis is taking place while elections are still a long way off does not help the situation. He said if the crisis was happening around election time, both factions could have compromised some of their differences in order to perform well at the elections. But he said the problem within the party is clearly personal and because of the size of the party it has a huge impact. “In a small party such as the CoD, if three or four leaders are not speaking to each other the impact can be felt.” He observed that in fact all the leaders in the CoD have split from one or the other party before, and this is not a new experience to them. Lindeke concluded by saying that it is now clear that there was no real idea behind the party being formed and everybody just wanted to create an alternative. The group that staged a walkout gave Ulenga 14 working days to meet their demands, which include nullifying the extraordinary congress results and doing a forensic audit of the congress and party. To date seven working days have passed and Ulenga has not shown any indication of meeting their demands. Ulenga maintains that the elections were free and fair and that the new elected leadership is legitimate. Ulenga is putting his efforts into reviving the party structures in the regions. The CoD was formed in 1999 after Ulenga, a former Swapo MP, deputy minister and high commissioner became disillusioned with the ruling party. He had objected to Namibia’s involvement in the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as Nujoma’s decision to run for a third term. Although it was the CoD’s aim to create an alternative movement to the ruling party, the election results in 1999 suggested that the DTA suffered most from the party’s arrival.