One man

On a balmy day in October, in the heart of Katutura, a man set off on a walk that would change the landscape of political campaigning in Namibia. He would proceed to power walk the streets of every major town in Namibia, suit and tie in the middle of some of the most scorching heat waves of the year. It became his signature, it endeared him to many frustrated citizens – the majority of whom are jobless and frustrated youth. Instead of driving around in a convoy of expensive cars, this man rubbed shoulders and walked side by side with the most disillusioned and discontented members of our society (straight out of the Julius Malema campaign playbook), that man is Dr Panduleni Filemon Mbango Itula – Independent Presidential Candidate.

A few months earlier, I attended a talk that he gave. The dude is extremely smart, that I deduced from the 90 minutes he spent explaining medical malpractice to an auditorium full of medical health professionals – like they were five year olds. A few months later when he launched his election campaign, I was surprised that this man, a card carrying member would stand up and square off toe to toe with the mighty SWAPO. I would expect such ungovernable behavior from a radical impatient youth, not a seasoned comrade who earned his political collateral through student activism in the 1970’s that earned him torture and incarceration. Why would he go against his own organization? He didn’t actually think he would win? A thought crossed my mind, clearly he was just doing it to piss of the upper echelons of the SWAPO leadership and prove a point – David was given no chance against Goliath and he wacked the giant with one stone.

Dr Itula’s manifesto was simple, nothing spectacular. You’d think for a man so educated his manifesto would be the size of the holy bible. However, to an electorate that was accustomed to being bombarded with long rambling documents that were simply bastardized versions of National Development Plans (NDP’s), something short and sweet appealed to the ordinary man on the street. No long stories, straight to the point. No unrealistic promises of world class sport stadiums, high paying jobs, and luxury houses. His bullet point manifesto tackled the hot points: Housing, education, unemployment, corruption, health services, and service delivery. All with an emphasis on increasing the participation of the youth in the Country’s decision making structures, it sounded too good to be true, but to an electorate who were not used to choice, something different was always going to catch their attention.

Then came the fracas with SWAPO SG Sophia Shaningwa that pissed her off so much that she came as close to uttering hate speech as you can without actually uttering hate speech, Itula had poked his finger into SWAPO’s eye and SWAPO was not happy. It reminded me of the classic cartoon Tom and Jerry. Then the character assassination started: who is this dude? What is his motive? Was he being funded by the tooth fairy or some neo colonial capitalist enterprise that wanted to destabilize Namibia’s peace and stability? If he really wanted to save Namibia, why did he wait till two months before elections? SWAPO like any African liberation movement reacts to rebelliousness the same way a wounded lion reacts – brutal and aggressive.

So how will history remember him? Well, that’s pretty easy – as the dentist who lost the presidential election to Hage Geingob. The walking candidate (Johnny Walker) who garnered over 200 000 votes but did not even end up with a seat in parliament. The over ambitious doctor who took on the SWAPO juggernaut and failed like many before him. History will reduce him to a footnote, a few lines – the modern day Icarus. That’s what is most likely to happen, and it will be a tragedy, a single story that leaves out so much.

To balance the scales, it should be noted that this one man did things that I didn’t think I’d live long enough to see. One man on his own, followed by a throng of young people, like the pied piper enchanting the children of Hamelin, he shook the foundations of Namibian politics. One man got young people to stand in queues and vote, young people delayed their favorite activity (it rhymes with sinking) just so they could vote – some would say it was witchcraft. Men with more liberation struggle credentials and their own political parties could not garner the amount of votes that he managed after only two months on the campaign trail – 50 000 more votes and he would have forced a re-run. He may have lost but Panduleni Itula will hopefully be remembered as the alarm that woke up the Namibian electorate, the catalyst that voters needed to start showing our political leaders that elections are not a battle of ideas, but a renegotiation of the terms under which the electorate wished to be governed. Dr Itula indirectly cost SWAPO their two thirds majority – debate me, I dare you! He allowed voters to send a clear message – the electorate hold the trump card in elections and failure to deliver will be rewarded with less votes at the ballot box. One man, suit and tie, and shoes that should have holes in them by now, scared SWAPO like we have never seen before – now tell me isn’t that the stuff legends are made of?

Personally, the greatest lesson I have taken from Itula’s campaign is timing, every move he made was executed at the right time and came off perfectly. Ten years ago he would not have stood a chance, but looking at the demographics of the population and the discontent, he picked the right time to run for presidency. Ten years ago, he would have formed his own party, but having seen two men already try and fail, he knew that running as an independent candidate and fighting his own organization from within would yield better results. One man can change a lot, one man.