WINDHOEK – Former DTA of Namibia president Katuutire Kaura is not convinced that plans by the current leadership of the party to rebrand it will increase the political fortunes of the party, claiming that rebranding is merely “putting old wine in new bottles”.
The DTA recently announced it would embark on rebranding to get rid of apartheid symbols.
“To be honest I do not know what the rebranding is all about, maybe those are the new ideas of youth which the old people do not understand. Rebranding is the same thing as putting old wine in new bottles. If I am not comfortable with my wife anymore, I cannot rebrand her to make her look new, I will divorce her and get another one. Whatever arguments they have I really do not know,” Kaura told New Era earlier this week.
“If you want to get rid of something you must simply start afresh,” argued the veteran politician who led the party from 1998 to 2013.
“The name is nothing, it is the people in the party that matter. So will they also rebrand the people in the party to become something else of what they have been all along?” Kaura asked.
Sources within the party leadership informed New Era that Kaura has repeatedly spoken out against the rebranding efforts of the party during party meetings.
Kaura was absent during the last national executive committee meeting held last month where the party leadership gave the green light for the rebranding process to commence.
“I was not there during that meeting because I had to attend to problems on my farm,” he said.
Asked why he was isolating himself from the rebranding plans, Kaura said: “I am not isolating myself, during the campaign last year I was told that I am old and I must go, so now I am keeping my mouth shut and looking after my cattle that will never talk back, and allowing the young people to do their things. We will see how far they go,” he said.
Venaani, described by many as Kaura’s political protégé, took over the party from Kaura in 2013.
Venaani said plans to rebrand the party are aimed at strengthening the party and opposition politics in the country as a whole.
Venaani also urged Kaura to express his grievances internally instead of lambasting the party in public.
“Our leader [Kaura] should be the bigger person instead of being a pessimist simply because he no longer has power. Of course he is entitled to his opinion, but I can assure him that I am a leader who takes action and decisions based on reality,” Venaani said.
The rebranding will be a people-centred process, said Venaani.
“I would have preferred him to say this internally but now he wants to create a fracas about the issue in public. We should be cautious when it comes to putting pretext on opinions. I want my leader to go into retirement in peace. This whole bickering does not warrant sound leadership, what he thinks is his opinion but most of his opinions have been rebuffed in the past. Just as we allowed him time and energy to run the party, he must allow me the time and energy to run the party. Let the benefit of the doubt be given to the current leadership to look at new ways to strengthen the party,” Venaani said.