Thread: RDP/RP Merger- How does it impact on the Namibian Political landscape?

Welll, am really surprised this was not discussed on The Shebeen .

I am quoting some Namibian takes on this below. The question is now, how does this merger really effect the Namibian political landscape? I do not necessarily hear much hype around this merger, not even one Taxi ride discussion in the true Namibian spirit I tell you.

Before we vote on whether or not this is a good merger to the benefit of the greater Namibian population, let's discuss and analyse the real reasons behind this move and what the Namibians stand to gain or loose through this merger...Fellow shebeeners, the floor is yours, let's discuss!!

08.10.2010
RDP/RP Merger: A Marriage Of Convenience And Survival

IN the Damara and Nama cultures marriage is a family affair. You can be rich as a bridegroom-to-be but will never be allowed to organise and marry alone. In fact, whoever wants to marry a Damara or Nama woman is likely to be sent home to get his ‘parents’.
Family must have a say, no matter how poor or insignificant they might appear.
Towards the end of negotiations for a bride, the family of the bride-to-be are likely to ask for a ‘apa gomas’. Others refer to it as lobola. With Damaras and Namas, it is a cow which will be handed over to the mother or guardian of the wife-to-be and the idea is to keep it in the family kraal as the ‘seed’ for the couple’s new life as (part-time) farmers. Their children will one day live off it, the elders will say.
The recent political merger between the Rally for Democracy and Progress and the Republican Party represents a similar marriage.
As the Republican Party was formed in October 1977 when Dirk Mudge left the National Party, it is no longer a young bride. It has one divorce behind it after leaving (in 2003) a disastrous marriage – the DTA alliance.
That’s when Henk Mudge, son of founder Dirk Mudge, was entrusted to reactivate the party and target the lost white vote.
For me, the idea was to continue the Mudge political dynasty and it succeeded to an extent when the RP won seats in seven local authorities councils and one for Henk Mudge in the 2004 National Assembly elections.
Mudge made no secret that he was targeting the white vote, claiming that they were being “seriously discriminated against” but the pipe-smoking politician also targeted a section of Damaras through several pentecostal churches as well as people in and around Katima Mulilo.
Therefore, while progress was made in expanding the support base of the party in especially Khomas, Caprivi and Erongo regions in 2004, the scale was still decidedly almost non-existent, especially in the North where the biggest number of voters reside.
Their total number of votes in the 2004 National Assembly elections were 16 187 but because the Namibian democracy is unfortunately littered with a series of party infightings (which have resulted in some failed projects), the RP failed to overcome ego politics and become a strong opposition.
The results were very evident last year when the party collected only 6 541 votes throughout the country.
While they were able to get one seat in Katima in 2004, the RP only managed to collect 79 votes in November last year.
At Keetmans, where they also have a local councillor, only 293 people cast their votes for the party while their support in Khomas went down from 5 040 in 2004 to 1 812 last year.
It became clear that the RP membership was dwindling and that the party, if it continued on its own, would struggle to stay afloat.
The Mudges had to look towards Hidipo Hamutenya, with whom they had serious past animosities.
Interestingly, Mudge’s RP was the first political party which, when Hamutenya resigned from Swapo in 2007, issued a statement to welcome his decision. Maybe then already Henk Mudge had a vision and saw Hamutenya as a potential comrade.
There is no doubt that it is a marriage of survival for the Mudge family and one of convenience for Hamutenya.
As RP has been dwindling over the past couple of years, there is not much in it for RDP.
Yet, they seem to have paid the ‘apa gomas’ (lobola) as Henk Mudge first needed to consult and get the blessing of his parents before walking up the aisle.
In fact, last year’s election results indicated that the RDP benefitted big time from the support base of the likes of RP and the Congress of Democrats.
The majority of supporters whom Mudge claim to join RDP with, are already there! They saw the ship sinking and jumped some time ago.
Therefore, it will be interesting to see how the RDP will cope with demands by a few RP leaders and how long it will be before Hamutenya is served with divorce papers by the Mudges.
So at the end the merger is really much (read Mudge) ado about nothing.

the Namibian: RDP/RP Merger: A Marriage Of Convenience And Survival

Desie Heita
10 September 2010

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Windhoek — The merger between the Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) and the Republican Party (RP) does not hold much significance, especially that the former has been losing votes in the past elections, local analysts opine.

Such a union does nevertheless present RP an opportunity to stay afloat, especially now that its membership has been dwindling.

"It is one way to resurrect and keep the party afloat," commented Dr Hoze Riruako from the University of Namibia.

RDP and RP are to merge and form a single political party. They have signed a memorandum of understanding and in the meantime, they would jointly campaign together and challenge the upcoming regional council and local authority elections.

Commenting on the union, Riruako said it is "quite natural for opposition political parties to seek ties and align with each other", especially when there is worry over increasing voter apathy.

"There is a great deal of voter apathy. The numbers [of voters] have been going down, drastically very low [in the past elections]," said Riruako.

Another analyst, Dr Andrew Niikondo, from the Polytechnic of Namibia, said the merger of the two parties "is not really significant in Namibian political landscape".

Political analyst, Graham Hopwood, agrees that the union "is not a game changer".

"It is an interesting development, but probably not that significant," said Hopwood.

Niikondo said the union is likely to confuse voters more, particularly if the two political parties wish to capitalise on the coming regional and local elections.

"The coalition would have less impact on the regional elections. It needs a lot of effort to educate and convince members and for members to familiarise themselves with the new face of the two political parties," say Niikondo.

Hopwood said while the fact is RP is "a declining force in Namibian politics", the party does have "a few thousand members, a seat [in Parliament], as well as representation in various local authorities, [which] could be useful to the RDP".

In addition, the true test of the union is how the two political party leaders approach the 2014 national elections.

"It is easy to make a deal but not always easy to make that deal work," said Niikondo, adding that in all likelihood, RDP founding leaders would eye the top 10 positions in the party so that they can make it to Parliament.

It is now a question of how the RP top leaders would fit into their new party.

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"RP should be prepared to face that situation" because that is the situation that has potential to bring a stalemate or even mount a dissolution of the union between the two political parties, said Niikondo.

On whether the RP has potential to bring white voters to the RDP, the analysts said that is not really clear, especially that the RP has been moving away from being a white only party to a multicoloured political party as evidenced by its presence in various local authorities in non-white areas.

Niikondo also says the entire process of the union between the two political parties "was not transparent enough, perhaps transparent but not enough".

"This goes beyond signing a memorandum of understanding between the two parties - it is about the people, the voters of the two political parties," said Niikond

allAfrica.com: Namibia: RDP-RP Merger Trivial

RDP and RP merger economically driven?
POLITICAL experts feel that economic consideration have driven the merger between the Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) and the Republican Party (RP) because the RDP hopes to secure financial backing from wealthy white farmers it believes supports the RP.

The two parties announced the merger on Tuesday this week, but analysts say that two parties are ideologically opposites and otherwise only have a single objective in common – to defeat the ruling party Swapo.
Chairperson of the Monitor Action Group (MAG) Kosie Pretorius however, warned the merger between RDP and RP did not necessarily means all whites would join, or vote for the RDP, because the RP was not an exclusively white political party.
He said that there were no reliable figures available to show how many white people are members of the Republican Party.
Although Pretorius was reluctant to comment further on the merger, he said the RDP and RP have nothing in common except for their strong opposition Swapo.
Pretorius believes that there is nothing fundamentally different between the RDP and Swapo, except that RPD claims they will do things better than Swapo once they get into power.
Political analyst, Dr Audrin Mathe said that RP does not bring any value in terms of votes and that the RP’s presence in the National Assembly is only due to the proportional representation system in the elections. However, Mathe said that the merger is an economic strategy since the RP enjoys the support of some white farmers that the RDP hopes to benefit from.
Mathe also believes that the RDP and RP are ideologically opposite since most RDP members came from the Swapo party while most RP members came from the DTA.
He added that RDP claims to be a multi-racial party and the merger will be a good selling point for them, but the merger would remain unconvincing due to ideological differences.
Mathe echoed the belief that there is no common ground between the RDP and RP except that both parties want to defeat Swapo. Unlike the RP, he said that RDP has not yet tested its support in Regional and Local Authorities elections.
The RDP Director General of Administration, Libolly Haufiku said that the merger between the RDP and RP was a meaningful gesture of national reconciliation – an issue the RDP felt the Swapo Government had ignored.
Haufiku said that the trivialising the need for national reconciliation by the ruling party was evident in the last year’s national elections, where leaders of Swapo used hate speech especially against white Namibians.
Haufiku denied that any financial consideration had influenced the merger and said that the main reason was the unification of Namibians, but although the RP would help financially, wherever it could.
He emphasised that the RP has many members who are farmers and have skills in the agricultural sector, which the country can put to good use.
Furthermore, he stated the RDP’s willingness to look forward and not back into history, unlike the ruling party, which stuck to its policy of marginalising national reconciliation.
“We know things about them. How many whites did they bring into the party after independence? Who talks about that? So we should just close that chapter and move forward,” Haufiku said.
With regard to the composition of RP members, he said it consisted of mostly young people who joined the party based on their constitutional right to become members of any party they chose.
He added that currently he was unable to tell how many RP members would join the RDP because people would join out of their own free will.
“Individuals will be encouraged to join the party, but it will be a gradual process,” Haufiku said.
In a Press release issued after the merger on Tuesday, the two parties stated that the “RP will motivate and encourage its members and supporters to become members of the RDP as this Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) takes effect”.
“The consolidation process will be run in a well-planned and co-ordinated manner so that we don’t disrupt any organisation or work of the various levels of Government where the RP may still have to play its role as elected by its members and supporters.
“The RDP, on its part will whole-heartedly receive and accept all RP members and supporters of the RP with full rights and obligations under the RDP Constitution,” the MoU read.
The motto of the RDP would remain “Together We Can Do Better”. – pteca@observer.com.na This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it


RDP and RP merger economically driven?

This week witnessed three interesting events. The biggest one of course was the Supreme Court ruling in favour of the nine opposition parties who had challenged last year’s National Assembly and Presidential Elections, alleging widespread irregularities and stuffing of ballot boxes,” which, they claimed, amounted to “rigging elections” and therefore the elections should be declared “null and void.”

The Supreme Court did not rule on the matter, it simply directed that the case should be referred back to the High Court. Yet a few individual RDP members went on a celebration spree, claiming that they had “won” the case. To confuse the situation more – and this is the second event -- shortly after the Supreme Court ruling, RDP conspicuously announced that it would take up its seats in the National Assembly.

It is just what SWAPO Party Secretary General, Cde Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana, aptly called the “drama” whose time had “long run out.” A casual observer might be forgiven for thinking that the two events might boost RDP’s image by drumming up its dwindling support nationally. Not so, really. Their effects on how RDP behaves from here are totally different. The victim will still be RDP.

The Supreme Court ruling came as a blessing in disguise for RDP. The Party has been desperately looking for a palatable excuse on how to take up its seats in the National Assembly without being humiliated in public. True, RDP faces a crippling financial crisis, caused by its own foolhardy refusal to take up its seats in the National Assembly.

With regional council and local authority elections just around the corner, the heavens were not going to be kind to RDP, as manna from above the skies have long ceased to fall. A serious political party convinced about, and having faith in, its claims could have used the Supreme Court ruling to say, well, ‘we will not go to Parliament, we will tough it out until the High Court has pronounced itself on the issue.’ For, that was the reason for the boycott.

Not so for RDP. The stomachs were empty and political stubbornness comes with very small change. Big change was in the National Assembly. RDP has learned the hard way. It simply used the Supreme Court ruling to fast-track itself into the National Assembly, rather than waiting for a protracted court battle to the end, and use whatever little cents it could get from there for the upcoming regional council and local authorities election campaigns. The move is too late, though. The political damage caused by its six-month boycott of the National Assembly is irreparable, as it would see for itself in the coming weeks and months before the elections.

The third event, which is more laughable than the first two, is the merger between RDP and the Republikein Party, RP, of Henk Mudge.

Some people may think that RP is a serious political party in Namibia. It is not. So, the merger on Tuesday was nothing but a unification of political carcasses. Mudge and RDP’s Hidipo Hamutenya on that fateful day, signed, sealed and delivered their common desire to be buried together in the same political grave very soon.

But sure enough, Mudge had a mouthful on what the marriage would bring about as he took his wedding vows. It stunned the few people who were around to listen to his moribund speech. Suddenly Hamutenya had become his “comrade” and “friend.” And the vows went like this: “I, as a true believer and with the authority bestowed upon us, declare here today, in the name of Jesus Christ, my Saviour, that today will mark the beginning of the end of the SWAPO Party government.” Poor Tuesday, September 7, 2010!

What a declaration! It sounded like that of Rhodesia’s Ian Smith when he said that there “will never be majority rule in Rhodesia for a thousand years.” He lived to see Zimbabwe. He lived to see majority rule. It was, just like that of Mudge, a declaration that could only be made by a political greenhorn.

I hope that Hamutenya, who knows SWAPO Party far better than the ineptitude Mudge, did not believe such political nonsense. Mudge’s father, too, Dirk Mudge, must have listened in disbelief to the tantrums of his son. Mudge senior started RP 30 years ago to ensure that SWAPO never came to power in Namibia. He did all he could to prevent SWAPO’s victory. He failed, dismally.

During the 1989 elections, the apartheid regime of South Africa gave all internal parties who were opposed to SWAPO N$100 million to do all they could to prevent SWAPO from winning the 1989 elections. The money came through Dirk Mudge’s RP, which was a member of the DTA alliance. Dirk Mudge was DTA’s Chairman from its inception and Minister of Finance from 1985 to 1989 in the Transitional Government of National Unity, TGNU.

He was also instrumental in spearheading the failed Multi-Party Conference, MPC, which was a disastrous attempt on his part to reach an “internal settlement in South West Africa/Namibia” without SWAPO. The N$100 million that he got from Pretoria – which later became better known as the “Slush Funds,” vanished like wedding confetti without defeating SWAPO Party.

Mudge junior has now stepped into his father’s shoes. It is a long journey that exhausted his father. Mudge junior’s partner in his latest political outing is Hamutenya. Let us go back to those vows again. “I … declare here today, in the name of Jesus Christ, my Saviour, that today will mark the beginning of the end of the SWAPO Party government.” So help me Jesus Christ! One could add that.

Mukuru uandje! Mudge of all people, saying this! Etsee! The reason history repeats itself is that most people weren’t listening the first time. Henk Mudge is a case in point. Time will tell.

SWAPO - RDP & RP coalition