Ben Ulenga
Benjamin Crispus Ulenga ( born June 22, 1952 in Ontanga at Elim ) is a Namibian politician, trade union official and freedom fighters. Ben Ulenga was involved alongside Sam Nujoma active Namibian liberation struggle ( 1960-1989 ). As president and chairman of the party, the Congress Democrats ( CoD ), he leads since 1999, opposition to the ruling SWAPO.
Life
Youth, liberation struggle and imprisonment
Benjamin Ulenga ( Benjamin Uulenga ) was the son of a farmer in the small settlement Ontanga at Elim in the former Ovamboland (now Omusati Region, North Central Namibia) born. His family belongs to the tribe of Uukwambi, one of the traditional authorities of the Ovambo. Until 1972 he was graduated from the high school in Oshigambo at Engela (now Oshikoto Region ) and was a member of the South West Africa People 's Organization (SWAPO ). 1974 joined Ulenga the People's Liberation Army PLAN ( the military arm of the South West Africa People's Organization ) in and was forced into exile. By 1975, he was awarded a supported by the Soviet Union's military training in Angola. When fighting in the Otavi triangle he was wounded in July 1976, was captured and sentenced in February 1977 by the South West African Court to 15 years imprisonment on the South African prison island Robben Iceland, on who at the time Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. After a detention conditions easing him a correspondence course in English and History at the University of South Africa ( UNISA ) was made possible. In 1985 he was released early from prison.
Union activities and membership in the government Nujoma
From 1986 to 1991 Ulenga was General Secretary of the Trade Union of Mine Workers ( MUN ) and had significant influence in the reconstruction of the trade unions in Namibia. In the ranks of SWAPO Ulenga 1989 was a member of the Constituent Assembly of Namibia since 1990 and member of the first government Nujoma, first as Deputy Minister of Environment and Tourism (1991-1995), then Deputy Minister of Local and Regional Administration and housing (1995-1996 ). From 1996 to 1998 he was the Namibian High Commissioner in the UK. From 1994 to 2001 he also served in various advisory roles in the city of Windhoek.
Break with Nujoma and political opposition
" Angry and disappointed" by the constitutional amendment Nujoma for his third term as president (1998) and Namibia's participation in the Second Congo War ( 1998-2003), Ulenga was end of August 1998 his diplomatic post in London and announced in March 1999 its membership in the SWAPO on. At the same time, he and other former SWAPO members of the Congress of Democrats ( CoD ) to the party leader and presidential candidate, he was elected in August 1999. With the parliamentary elections in November 1999, in which the CoD just under ten percent of the vote has emerged as the second largest party, Ulenga was again a member of the National Assembly, from now on in the ranks of the opposition.
Ben Ulenga was one of the strongest critics of the government Nujoma. He stopped in front of the former president, makes lusting to be high-handed and arrogant. He threw him and his party of corruption and electoral fraud, criticized land reform, the economic situation of Namibia, as well as the government's handling of the press and investors.
Due to an internal party power struggle with Ignatius Shixwameni, former parliamentary manager of the CoD and later founder of APP, it came in the course of 2007 to a party crisis in the congressional Democrats, in numerous end of 2007 CoD members left their party. In May 2008 Ulenga was confirmed at an extraordinary party congress in Keetmanshoop again as President of CoD; in the parliamentary elections in November 2009, the party suffered massive losses.
Since 2001 Ulenga is a lecturer at the Law Faculty of the University of Namibia ( UNAM). Ben Ulenga is married and has five children. He lives with his wife Nambata in Windhoek.