The NUNW Is In A State Of Violence Against A Workerist Identity

EVER since he chose the correct side of history in the GIPF saga and corruption, Evilastus Kaaronda, the Secretary General of the National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW) has been at the centre of an epic political storm.

Matters between Kaaronda and fellow unionists have reached dangerous proportions with threats on his life having been allegedly made in recent weeks by a senior ruling party politician.While the silence of President Hifikepunye Pohamba regarding what appears to be a serious matter of life and death is mind-boggling, it is explicable (but not justifiable) in light of the President’s laissez-faire approach to pressing matters in our country. This deafening, but shocking silence is perhaps the result of Kaaronda’s critical stance vis-à-vis the President and government on issues affecting workers. If it is the latter, it goes on to show the brutality and shallowness of our decision-making system, including its inability to rise above pettiness and emotions. Admittedly, this shallowness and pettiness has permeated many levels of our society, and this explains in no small measure why we are struggling to anchor the necessary ingredients for a quality country. Alas, we have now come to terms and been forced to accept that the abnormal under the current leadership is perfectly normal – even in matters of life and death as is currently the case with Kaaronda. We are now dangerously reaching a stage in which the banality of death and evil is becoming a permanent feature of a State in a semiconscious mode. Observers would be scared to twanging point when these forms of instability are built into the political system. While the life and death issues around Kaaronda deserve urgent attention, the shenanigans in the largest trade union in Namibia should (for a moment that is) be divorced from the person of Kaaronda. They ought to be discussed in terms of the place (or the lack thereof) of NUNW in our political geography. I phrase matters this way because Kaaronda’s recent fall-out with his comrades at the NUNW is not only an issue that puts him in the position of a brave Lilliputian refusing to be tied down by Gulliver – but he is also part of the problem when we look at his role in contemporary NUNW politics. Kaaronda has in the past been part of dominant and populist factions that suppressed alternative views and perspectives on issues, including but not limited to Swapo’s race for presidential succession during the last decade. By saying this, I do not seek to justify the existing untold lynching of this comrade on the basis of his un-bright past. Injustice must be condemned in whatever form it occurs. Be that as it may, the cataclysmic event of Swapo’s succession paralysed any empowering agenda of the NUNW in line with its core mandate and activity – fighting for the interests of Namibian workers. It sucked out the last freedoms the NUNW may have had as it is now being shaped by the constraints of political sanction, business and political careerism. The existing impasse does not only appear to be the result of the Government Institutions Pension Fund and lost millions, but there is also the lingering traditional power underside tied to looming succession within Swapo. How can the NUNW save itself from this untold rot?I have on countless occasions raised concern regarding the continued, uncritical affiliation of NUNW to Swapo. I have also raised concern regarding the trade union movement being led by an impasto of unhealthy and contagious influences that include senior civil servants and committed businessmen. While affiliation in itself would not constitute a problem per se, the absence of critique and self-review in this relationship, compounded by the inexplicable contagion of senior civil servants and businessmen is what has led to a union in a state of violence with itself and in permanent denial of its identity. The NUNW has become a party-school of men and women who must behave well in order to proceed to the next stage of achievement – a position in our parliamentary chambers and eventually cabinet. Since the NUNW has in recent years neglected a critical view on the most pressing issues of workers, the return to its historic mandate – which is what Kaaronda seems to be trying to do – has as a consequence been rejected as an agenda that collides with the interests of government and powerful individuals within the trade union movement. The only way in which the NUNW movement can be in accord with its mandate is to update its software or go back to the drawing board! * Alfredo Tjiurimo Hengari is a PhD-fellow in political science and researcher at the Centre for Political Research at the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, France.