Kaura rouses crowd at DTA’s Okakarara base

DTA leader and presidential candidate Katuutire Kaura received an enthusiastic reception when he took his election roadshow to a one-time heartland of support for his party on Saturday afternoon.

A crowd of DTA supporters estimated to number about 400 people gathered at the opposition party’s office at Okakarara for an election rally. The size of the turn-out – and the evident enthusiasm of the DTA party faithful decked out in party colours – may yet be a sign that the DTA has managed to halt, or even turn around, a severe slide in support in a constituency where the party once enjoyed solid vote majorities.”All politics is local,” is a quote attributed to a former, long-time Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Tip O’Neill; this weekend Kaura appeared to have taken those words to heart as he set out a short but sharp argument on why the people of Okakarara should refuse to give Namibia’s ruling party, Swapo, a further mandate to continue governing the country.Okakarara went through dry days in July this year, when the town’s water supply was cut off because of the Okakarara town council’s failure to settle its debts with NamWater.Kaura went straight to that point in his address.His message was a direct one of attack: “Ladies and gentlemen, if a government is unable to supply cheap, clean, drinkable water to various communities, that government does not deserve the mandate of the Namibian people to continue to govern for another five years.”Kaura blamed Government for the decision to cut the water supply to some towns in Namibia, calling it something unprecedented and “criminal”.Holding up a bottle of murky water that he said he had collected from a well used by people of a village in the Caprivi Region that is situated barely two kilometres from the Zambezi River, but nevertheless does not have a supply of clean water, he said this was another example that Namibia had a government that was unable to deliver clean water to its people.Such a government did not deserve a further mandate to govern, he repeated.He also accused Government of creating an education disaster by throwing 16- and 17-year-old children out of school and onto the streets if they failed their Grade 10 or 12 exams.The DTA would give such children a second chance, Kaura promised: “We will not allow the brains of our kids to be wasted.”He also made a promise on a topic that might be as much a concern at Okakarara as at any other place in Namibia where there are old-age pensioners.”It’s not going to be a case of ifs, buts and maybes.We are going to raise pensions to N$500,” he said.Turning his attention to Swapo’s presidential candidate, Hifikepunye Pohamba, Kaura called his nomination “a fatal mistake” by the ruling party.Pohamba had been a failure at each ministerial post he had held over the past 14 years; even when he was a Minister without portfolio he was a failure, Kaura charged.Now, as Minister of Lands, Resettlement and Rehabilitation he was failing to make use of farmland being offered for sale on the open market, and instead was choosing to target other farms for expropriation, “for purely political purposes”, Kaura added.”And now he must become the President of Namibia.Can you believe that?” he commented.Okakarara’s people may deliver a crucial verdict on the future prospects and survival chances of Kaura’s party in the National Assembly and Presidential elections next week Monday and Tuesday and the Regional Council elections two weeks later.The DTA had won overwhelming majorities at Okakarara in each election since Independence – until May this year when the party had to stomach the embarrassment of being beaten to the post by its former member party Nudo, and also Swapo, in a Regional Council by-election in which the DTA candidate received only 18 per cent of the total votes.Nudo was “a tribal political party, without any future”, was Kaura’s take on the party that may once again present the biggest challenge to the DTA’s poll prospects at Okakarara later this month.The size of the turn-out – and the evident enthusiasm of the DTA party faithful decked out in party colours – may yet be a sign that the DTA has managed to halt, or even turn around, a severe slide in support in a constituency where the party once enjoyed solid vote majorities.”All politics is local,” is a quote attributed to a former, long-time Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Tip O’Neill; this weekend Kaura appeared to have taken those words to heart as he set out a short but sharp argument on why the people of Okakarara should refuse to give Namibia’s ruling party, Swapo, a further mandate to continue governing the country.Okakarara went through dry days in July this year, when the town’s water supply was cut off because of the Okakarara town council’s failure to settle its debts with NamWater.Kaura went straight to that point in his address.His message was a direct one of attack: “Ladies and gentlemen, if a government is unable to supply cheap, clean, drinkable water to various communities, that government does not deserve the mandate of the Namibian people to continue to govern for another five years.”Kaura blamed Government for the decision to cut the water supply to some towns in Namibia, calling it something unprecedented and “criminal”.Holding up a bottle of murky water that he said he had collected from a well used by people of a village in the Caprivi Region that is situated barely two kilometres from the Zambezi River, but nevertheless does not have a supply of clean water, he said this was another example that Namibia had a government that was unable to deliver clean water to its people.Such a government did not deserve a further mandate to govern, he repeated.He also accused Government of creating an education disaster by throwing 16- and 17-year-old children out of school and onto the streets if they failed their Grade 10 or 12 exams.The DTA would give such children a second chance, Kaura promised: “We will not allow the brains of our kids to be wasted.”He also made a promise on a topic that might be as much a concern at Okakarara as at any other place in Namibia where there are old-age pensioners.”It’s not going to be a case of ifs, buts and maybes.We are going to raise pensions to N$500,” he said.Turning his attention to Swapo’s presidential candidate, Hifikepunye Pohamba, Kaura called his nomination “a fatal mistake” by the ruling party.Pohamba had been a failure at each ministerial post he had held over the past 14 years; even when he was a Minister without portfolio he was a failure, Kaura charged.Now, as Minister of Lands, Resettlement and Rehabilitation he was failing to make use of farmland being offered for sale on the open market, and instead was choosing to target other farms for expropriation, “for purely political purposes”, Kaura added.”And now he must become the President of Namibia.Can you believe that?” he commented.Okakarara’s people may deliver a crucial verdict on the future prospects and survival chances of Kaura’s party in the National Assembly and Presidential elections next week Monday and Tuesday and the Regional Council elections two weeks later.The DTA had won overwhelming majorities at Okakarara in each election since Independence – until May this year when the party had to stomach the embarrassment of being beaten to the post by its former member party Nudo, and also Swapo, in a Regional Council by-election in which the DTA candidate received only 18 per cent of the total votes.Nudo was “a tribal political party, without any future”, was Kaura’s take on the party that may once again present the biggest challenge to the DTA’s poll prospects at Okakarara later this month.

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