Katuutire Kaura

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Katuutire Kaura (born 3 February 1941) is a Namibian politician. He was President of the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA) from 1998 to 2013 and was the official Leader of the Opposition from 2000 to 2005.[1]

Life and career[]

Kaura was born in , Otjozondjupa Region. He went into exile in the United States during the 1970s and taught at Nyack High School in Upper Nyack, New York from 1972 to 1978; he also taught at Rockland Community College from 1973 to 1975. During the same period, Kaura attended the universities of Long Island and Columbia.[1]

From 1989 to 1998, Kaura was Vice-President of the DTA.[1] After DTA President Mishake Muyongo expressed support for Caprivi secession in 1998, he was suspended from the DTA in August 1998,[2] and Kaura became DTA President.[1][3] He called for Muyongo, who had fled into exile, to be brought back to Namibia and put on trial.[3]

Immediately prior to independence, Kaura was a member of the Constituent Assembly, which was in place from November 1989 to March 1990.[4] He has served as a member of the National Assembly of Namibia since independence in 1990.[1] He ran for President of Namibia in 1999 and 2004, receiving 9.6 percent[5][6] and 5.12 percent of the vote, respectively.[6] Following the 1999 election, he became Leader of the Official Opposition (composed of the DTA and the United Democratic Front) in April 2000.[1]

In the 2013 DTA elective central committee meeting, McHenry Venaani defeated Kaura by a margin of 96 to 52 and assumed the party presidency.[7] After publicly criticising Venaani's leadership, Kaura was brought before a DTA disciplinary committee and expelled from the party in February 2014. He was also to lose his seat in the National Assembly in the process to Venaani,[8] but a court case brought by Kaura days after the decision was not contested by the DTA, and Kaura was reinstated both as parliamentarian and party member.[9] He left the National Assembly at the end of his term in March 2015[10] and joined the ruling SWAPO Party in November 2017.[11]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d e f Profile at Namibian Parliament website[permanent dead link].
  2. ^ "Namibia: Opposition party reportedly suspends leader", SAPA, 25 August 1998.
  3. ^ a b "Namibia: Party leader says ex-opposition leader Muyongo should return, be tried", NBC Radio, Windhoek, 31 October 1998.
  4. ^ List of members of the Constituent Assembly, parliament.gov.na.
  5. ^ Political Parties of the World (6th edition, 2005), ed. Bogdan Szajkowski, page 428.
  6. ^ a b "ELECTION UPDATE 2004, NAMIBIA" Archived 3 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine, EISA report, number 3, 10 December 2004, page 9.
  7. ^ Immanuel, Shinovene (9 September 2013). "Youth take over at DTA". The Namibian. Archived from the original on 10 September 2013. Retrieved 3 February 2014.
  8. ^ Immanuel, Shinovene; Kahiurika, Ndanki (3 February 2014). "DTA boots out Kaura". The Namibian. Archived from the original on 21 February 2014. Retrieved 3 February 2014.
  9. ^ Kahiurika, Ndanki (13 February 2014). "Kaura is back". The Namibian. Archived from the original on 21 February 2014. Retrieved 13 February 2014.
  10. ^ "Kaura in Wilderness Over Honorary Status", New Era, 14 April 2015.
  11. ^ Iileka, Sakeus (14 November 2017). "I found a new political home – Kaura". The Namibian. p. 3.
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