National Unity Democratic Organisation’s outgoing secretary general Joseph Kauandenge has warned that growing internal factional squabbles, an outdated political programme and a changing political landscape pose serious threats to the party.
He said this in a missive, seen by this publication, addressed to party supremo Utjiua Muinjangue and other top brass.
He informed them of his plans to formally tender his resignation at the upcoming National Executive Committee Meeting set for Windhoek on Saturday.
He has served Nudo in key public offices for over 10 years, first in the Windhoek municipal council between 2015 and 2018, and then as a Member of Parliament from 2020 until March this year.
“Although I will relinquish my position as secretary general, I will remain an ordinary member of the party that I love dearly. It will not serve any purpose for me to go into details about why I am resigning and to list all my grievances here because I don’t believe that once the romance or marriage is over, one must start insulting and castigating the party in the media. I simply believe that [insults] show weak leadership and lack of character as a leader,” said Kauandenge in his letter.
If the party is to survive and maintain its popularity, more groundwork and some serious soul-searching will be needed to tackle internal factional infights, he said.
“My parting words, however, will be that the world and country are changing. If the party is to survive and remain standing for generations to come, it needs to adjust its political programme and do away with factional squabbles. The political dynamics of our country are changing, and for Nudo to remain standing and relevant for decades to come, we need a serious introspection of where we are and where the party is headed,” he cautioned.
Declining fortunes
In the national elections, Nudo has over the years been a perennial average performer, as in 2004 the party won 4.1% of popular votes and three out of 78 seats under President Kuaima Riruako, who ran as Nudo’s presidential candidate in the concurrent presidential elections and only managed to garner 4.23% of the national vote.
The 2009 National Assembly elections saw Nudo dropping to two seats after it won only 3.01% of the total votes. After Riruako’s death in 2014, veteran politician Asser Mbai took over as party president ahead of the 2014 National Assembly elections, which saw them retain their two seats.
The 2019 National Assembly elections equally saw Nudo secure two seats under president Muinjangue, but the party suffered a massive blow in last year’s National Assembly elections, as it could only secure one seat from 0.98% of the total votes.
The party’s dwindling popularity has been blamed on the ongoing internal bickering and lack of a clear political pathway and vision amongst Nudo’s supporters.
Civil war
Last year, Nudo was embroiled in a nasty legal tussle between the party’s last democratically-elected Muinjangue-led leadership and members of a breakaway group led by former football administrator Barry Rukoro, who equally claimed to be party president.
The two parties dragged each other to court, where the Muinjangue-led leadership asked the court to restrain Rukoro and his faction from claiming to be de facto party leaders, and to prevent them from disseminating correspondence on fake party letterheads.
They also asked the court to grant them an order to eject Rukoro’s faction from the party’s rental premises situated in the heart of Katutura along Clemence Kapuuo Street, and for them to immediately stop interfering with the operations of the party.
Rukoro’s splinter group were also accused of breaching the party’s constitution in that they had created disruption and disunity within Nudo’s rank and file.
On the other hand, Rukoro and his faction refused to budge, as they defended the legitimacy of his ascendancy to the party’s top position. At the time, Rukoro and the group had vowed to defend his leadership in court if challenged to.