WINDHOEK – The public’s perception that DTA was a collaborator of the South African apartheid regime is one of the reasons that have prompted the party’s current leadership to consider rebranding the party, its president McHenry Venaani said.
The issue was high on the party’s agenda when DTA national executive members met over the weekend.
“In order to grow we must cast off the shackles of the past and if this means to rebrand the DTA then this is the path we must walk,” party president McHenry Venaani said.
“Any change must be done in a consultative manner, therefore if we are going to rebrand it should not just be a decision taken by the party’s leadership, we should consult the voters,” Venaani said.
Venaani said his vision for the party is one “where the organisation stands under a new banner, ready to address the challenges and issues that plagues the nation’s development”.
He said the party needs to get rid of symbols that are with negative connotations and perceptions.
“This notion of the DTA as a collaborator has been wrongly propagated by history of the victor to create an ‘us versus them’ narrative in contemporary Namibian politics, and has to a large extent been ingrained in the collective Namibian psyche. Therefore the party must embrace change,” Venaani said.
Venaani describe DTA as a dynamic and progressive movement, but warned that if the party is to appeal to the electorate it should cast aside any notion that portrays the party in the negative.
Members of the public have over the years called on the party’s leadership to urgently consider changing the image of the party, and Venaani last year came out publicly to assure sympathisers and members of the party that the DTA leadership would look into the matter.
“We should never question the intelligence of our electorate because they are never wrong. Some parties claim they are the oldest yet they are dying because they are not adopting to change,” he said.
He told the gathering that the party needs to adapt to new ideas and subsequently made it clear that rebranding does not mean getting rid of the party’s long history.
“We must keep the party’s history because it is a long one from which we can still learn,” he said.
During last year’s national elections, the party managed to regain its official opposition status, after increasing its parliamentary seats from two to five.
Venaani, Elma Dienda, Vikuapuje Muharukua, Nico Smit and Jennifer van der Heever will be the party’s representatives in the National Assembly for the next five years.