Hitting the trail with Kaura

“PEOPLE waited for too long for change,” DTA presidential candidate Katuutire Kaura said during a blitz tour of the Erongo Region last week.

He was doing a house-to-house, public and street campaign, talking to the masses while driving with his campaign bus through Henties Bay, Swakopmund, Walvis Bay, Usakos and Okahandja. A week earlier, he visited the Kavango Region.Kavango and the Caprivi regions are where he pins his party’s hopes of an improved performance.”The August 2 uprising of [Mishake] Muyongo and the [Jonas] Savimbi incursions in the two regions cost us dearly.No one wanted to be seen wearing a DTA t-shirt because of what Muyongo did,” said Kaura.With Savimbi’s death last year things normalised in the Kavango Region, while people in the Caprivi have become more open about their alliance to the DTA.”The enthusiasm is there.No village meeting had less than 500 people in the Kavango,” said a hopeful Kaura.At Usakos, the likes of Esegiel Hoaeb have faith in Kaura’s ability to challenge for Namibia’s top post.”I’ve known him since the 1970s.He is a straightforward, powerful politician.A true leader,” the elderly man described Kaura.Hoaeb and many others, like those who rallied behind the campaign bus through the streets of Okahandja’s townships, believe that given a chance, the American-trained former teacher can deliver.”He is not a man of promises.What he says he does.That is why I am still behind him,” said Hoaeb.When he visited Kavango two weeks ago, Kaura collected a bottle of water from the wells where the locals drink.”The people are 2 km from the Kavango River but you should see the water they drink.They drink from the same place where the cattle, donkeys and dogs drink.Normally, you know, cattle urinate in water.It’s a health hazard,” he told The Namibian.He took a sample of the water to have it tested in Windhoek and to take up the matter on behalf of affected Kavango residents.While agreeing that Kaura is a good leader, a relative of his at Okahandja felt he has lost touch with the masses.”Look at the genocide issue,” said the family member, who chose to remain anonymous.A woodcarver from Okahandja believes that Kaura, who joined the liberation struggle soon after the shooting of protesters at Windhoek’s Old Location in 1959, has the right character for leadership but needs to surround himself with a good team.In terms of Namibia’s political realities, Kaura, an accomplished orator, needs more ammunition than the loudspeaker and slogans such as ‘vote against Panado’, ‘no shacks’, ‘no remote controller’ that were to the fore as he campaigned last week.* As a Swanu member Kaura fled the country in 1964, arriving in Tanzania in March.That August he secured a Fulbright-Hase scholarship to study in the US.He attained a BA and masters degrees in science (M.Sc.) and education (M.Ed.) at Long Island and Columbia universities.He taught geography, history and sociology at a school and a college in the US.Kaura represented Swanu at the United Nations in New York in the 1960s.He joined the National Unity Democratic Organisation (Nudo) in 1975.He returned to Namibia in 1978, the same year that the DTA was formed – drawn mostly from tribal groupings, including Nudo.A week earlier, he visited the Kavango Region.Kavango and the Caprivi regions are where he pins his party’s hopes of an improved performance.”The August 2 uprising of [Mishake] Muyongo and the [Jonas] Savimbi incursions in the two regions cost us dearly.No one wanted to be seen wearing a DTA t-shirt because of what Muyongo did,” said Kaura.With Savimbi’s death last year things normalised in the Kavango Region, while people in the Caprivi have become more open about their alliance to the DTA.”The enthusiasm is there.No village meeting had less than 500 people in the Kavango,” said a hopeful Kaura.At Usakos, the likes of Esegiel Hoaeb have faith in Kaura’s ability to challenge for Namibia’s top post.”I’ve known him since the 1970s.He is a straightforward, powerful politician.A true leader,” the elderly man described Kaura.Hoaeb and many others, like those who rallied behind the campaign bus through the streets of Okahandja’s townships, believe that given a chance, the American-trained former teacher can deliver.”He is not a man of promises.What he says he does.That is why I am still behind him,” said Hoaeb.When he visited Kavango two weeks ago, Kaura collected a bottle of water from the wells where the locals drink.”The people are 2 km from the Kavango River but you should see the water they drink.They drink from the same place where the cattle, donkeys and dogs drink.Normally, you know, cattle urinate in water.It’s a health hazard,” he told The Namibian.He took a sample of the water to have it tested in Windhoek and to take up the matter on behalf of affected Kavango residents.While agreeing that Kaura is a good leader, a relative of his at Okahandja felt he has lost touch with the masses.”Look at the genocide issue,” said the family member, who chose to remain anonymous.A woodcarver from Okahandja believes that Kaura, who joined the liberation struggle soon after the shooting of protesters at Windhoek’s Old Location in 1959, has the right character for leadership but needs to surround himself with a good team.In terms of Namibia’s political realities, Kaura, an accomplished orator, needs more ammunition than the loudspeaker and slogans such as ‘vote against Panado’, ‘no shacks’, ‘no remote controller’ that were to the fore as he campaigned last week.* As a Swanu member Kaura fled the country in 1964, arriving in Tanzania in March.That August he secured a Fulbright-Hase scholarship to study in the US.He attained a BA and masters degrees in science (M.Sc.) and education (M.Ed.) at Long Island and Columbia universities.He taught geography, history and sociology at a school and a college in the US.Kaura represented Swanu at the United Nations in New York in the 1960s.He joined the National Unity Democratic Organisation (Nudo) in 1975.He returned to Namibia in 1978, the same year that the DTA was formed – drawn mostly from tribal groupings, including Nudo.