UDF soldiers on … party leaders confident of survival

ESTER MBATHERA and CLEMENCE MIYANICWEONE OF Namibia’s longest surviving minority political parties, the United Democratic Front (UDF), has vowed to remain in parliament, despite what it terms an ‘uneven playing field’ regarding the distribution of election campaign resources.

The party’s president, Apius !Auchab, told The Namibian that the UDF is going nowhere.

“UDF will never die a natural death, like other small parties that have come and gone. All the parties that originated from Swapo have died. Then, you should ask yourself how come that while people are there, the party dies just like that? Something is wrong somewhere, but that will never happen with UDF.”

The UDF was formed as a coalition of different traditional groups and leaders in 1989 to participate in the country’s first democratic elections. In that year, it transformed into a political party under the leadership of chief Justus Garoëb.

The party has maintained its presence in parliament, occupying no more than four seats at a time. In the last two elections (2009 and 2014), it won two seats.

!Auchab attributes the party’s last dismal performance to the change of leadership in 2013.

“During the last elections (2014), we were in a transformation because the leadership of Garoëb ended, and the new leadership came in. It was so difficult and confusing for the people because they mostly knew Garoëb.”

!Auchab said at the time, the party decided not to go down.

“If we cannot succeed to increase the seats, then we should just remain where we are, keeping these two (seats), and we will go back to the drawing board and see what we can do, and that is what we have done.”

The UDF draws its support mainly from the Erongo and Kunene regions “because the party does not have the resources to take the campaign to all corners of the country,” !Auchab stated.

“It could have been better if the playing field was level. You see, the resources limit us from reaching all corners of the country, as we would wish to. If that was not the case, you could have seen how UDF is motivating members. We have done our best.”

Matheus Tsaeb, a founding member of the party, believes there is a huge possibility that the UDF will get more seats in this month’s elections.

“This year’s list (parliamentary) has more women and young people, and also includes people from the Kavango regions and the northern, central and southern parts of Namibia. This is a sign that we are not going to die out,” Tsaeb confidently told The Namibian.

He added that the parliamentary list also shows that they (the old guard) have groomed enough young leaders to take the party forward, and especially with the party’s president being below the age of 60.

The party’s women’s league chairperson, Dorka Shikongo, also believes that it is “impossible that the UDF will die out.”

She blames the party’s declining support on some leaders of the UDF coalition parties, as well as the party’s founders who have retired from active politics.

Shikongo was, however, quick to say that the retirement of the party’s founding leader, Garoëb, from active politics “didn’t affect the UDF in any way, as the people themselves had asked him to retire from politics so that he could focus on traditional issues.”

The party’s youth under the chairmanship of Michael Skini is determined to see the UDF attaining ‘national unity’. The youth leader is 11th on the party’s parliamentary list. He is of the opinion that the UDFYL is championing the interests and rights of the Namibian youth.

“The youth wing of the party is entrusted with ensuring that the youth make a full contribution to the work of the UDF, and to the socio-economic life of the nation,” Skini said of the UDFYL’s role.

Associate researcher at the Institute for Public Policy Research, Ndapwa Alweendo, believes that the survival of political parties like the UDF is vital for democracy.

Swapo has the majority of the seats in parliament. It is important to have minority parties, because they bring a different voice and different policies to be discussed,” she explains. Despite having only two representatives in parliament, data from parliament shows that in 2017, the UDF leader single-handedly asked a quarter (42) of all the 139 questions asked in parliament.

One cannot really be sure whether that translates into effectiveness, as the activities of the National Assembly are very much in the hands of the ruling Swapo Party, Alweendo added.

Looking forward to the next parliament, the researcher proposed that “it would be good to see opposition parties using their role more effectively. I think it would be in their interest to communicate more with the public and show that they are more effective in parliament, and for the people to see that they are really making an impact.”

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