Ben Ulenga (born Benjamin Crispus Ulenga on June 22, 1952Profile of Ulenga on Namibian Parliament website
) is a

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

n trade unionist, politician, and diplomat. In the 1990s, he served under the

SWAPO The South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO ; , SWAVO; , SWAVO), officially known as the SWAPO Party of Namibia, is a political party and former independence movement in Namibia (formerly South West Africa). Founded in 1960, it has been ...

government as a deputy minister and as an ambassador, but he left SWAPO in 1998 and founded an opposition party, the

Congress of Democrats The Congress of Democrats (CoD) is a Namibian opposition party without representation in the National Assembly and was led by Ben Ulenga from 2004 to 2015. It was established in 1999, prior to that year's general elections, and started off w ...

(CoD), in 1999. He was a member of the

National Assembly of Namibia The National Assembly is the lower chamber of Namibia's bicameral Parliament. Its laws must be approved by the National Council, the upper house. Since 2014, it has a total of 104 members. 96 members are directly elected through a system of cl ...

from 2000 to 2015 and led the CoD until 2015.

Life and career

Ulenga, born in Ontanga,

Oshana Region Oshana is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia; its capital is Oshakati. The towns of Oshakati, Ongwediva and Ondangwa, all situated with this region, form an urban cluster with the second largest population concentration in Namibia after the c ...

, played an influential role in the independence struggle of Namibia against

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

rule. He joined the

People's Liberation Army of Namibia The People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN) was the military wing of the South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO). It fought against the South African Defence Force (SADF) and South West Africa Territorial Force (SWATF) during the S ...

in 1974 but was later captured after being wounded in combat and sentenced to 15 years in prison, which he spent on

Robben Island Robben Island () is an island in Table Bay, 6.9 kilometres (4.3 mi) west of the coast of Bloubergstrand, north of Cape Town, South Africa. It takes its name from the Dutch language, Dutch word for seals (''robben''), hence the Dutch/Afrika ...

. He was released in 1985. At that time he met Rosa Namises. They had two children together before separating in 1988. Ulenga founded the Mineworkers Union of Namibia in 1986. Immediately prior to independence, he was a

member of the

Constituent Assembly A constituent assembly (also known as a constitutional convention, constitutional congress, or constitutional assembly) is a body assembled for the purpose of drafting or revising a constitution. Members of a constituent assembly may be elected b ...

, which was in place from November 1989 to March 1990. After independence, he was a SWAPO member of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

from 1990 to 1996, and he was deputy Minister of Wildlife, Conservation and Tourism from 1991 to 1995 before becoming deputy Minister of Regional and Local Government and Housing in 1995. He was later appointed as Namibia's High Commissioner to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, but in August 1998 he resigned from that post to protest plans to amend the constitution so that president

Sam Nujoma Samuel Shafiishuna Daniel Nujoma ( ; 12May 19298February 2025) was a Namibian revolutionary, anti-apartheid activist and politician who served three terms as the first president of Namibia, from 1990 to 2005. Nujoma was a founding member and t ...

could run for a third term; in addition, he expressed dissatisfaction with Namibia's military presence in the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...

during that country's

civil war A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

. He initially said that he would remain a member of SWAPO, but he subsequently left SWAPO and founded the opposition

(CoD) in March 1999. He was the CoD candidate in the 1999 presidential election, placing second behind Nujoma and receiving 10.5% of the vote. He was also elected to the National Assembly as a CoD candidate in the 1999 parliamentary election. At a CoD congress, Ulenga was re-elected as president of the CoD on August 1, 2004; he was also chosen as the party's candidate for the November 2004 presidential election. In this election, he placed second with 7.28% of the vote, far behind SWAPO candidate

Hifikepunye Pohamba Hifikepunye Lucas Pohamba (born 18 August 1935) is a Namibian politician who served as the second president of Namibia from 21 March 2005 to 21 March 2015. He won the 2004 Namibian presidential election, 2004 presidential election overwhelming ...

. In the concurrent 2004 parliamentary election, he was re-elected to the National Assembly. At an extraordinary party congress held in

Keetmanshoop Keetmanshoop is a town in the ǁKaras Region of southern Namibia. It is named after , a German Empire, German industrialist and benefactor of the city. Keetmanshoop had a population of 27,862 people in 2023. History Before the colonial era, ...

in May 2008,Brigitte Weidlich
"CoD's Ben Ulenga to sue 'rebel' MPs"
''The Namibian'', December 21, 2007.Kuvee Kangueehi

''New Era'', July 21, 2008. Ulenga was re-elected as CoD president; he defeated

Ignatius Shixwameni Ignatius Nkotongo Shixwameni (4 September 1966 – 10 November 2021) was a Namibian politician. He was the leader of Namibia's All People's Party. Life Shixwameni was born in Shambyu, the traditional kingdom in the Kavango Region, and he earn ...

by 14 votes, and Shixwameni, rejecting the outcome, left the congress in protest along with about half of the delegates. Shixwameni alleged rigging and claimed that his CoD faction represented the majority of the party; his faction went to the High Court to press these claims. In July 2008, the High Court ruled in favor of the Shixwameni faction, nullifying the May 2007 congress. Ulenga accepted the decision. In the 2009 general election, Ulenga's support dropped significantly and he received 5,812 votes (0.72%), which placed him in 9th place out of 12 candidates for president. This represented more than 50,000 fewer votes than he had received when he finished second to Pohamba in the 2004 campaign. Similarly, the CoD lost four of five members of the National Assembly. Ulenga, however, was re-elected. Things got even worse for the CoD in the 2014 Presidential and National Assembly election where the party failed to win a single seat. The defeat was followed by Ulenga’s resignation as party president in 2015. In 2017 Ulenga rejoined SWAPO, 18 years after he had left the party.

References

External links

Interview with Ben Ulenga by Tor Sellström within the project Nordic Documentation on the Liberation Struggle in Southern Africa
– dated 16 March 1995. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ulenga, Ben 1952 births Living people Politicians from Oshana Region Ovambo people SWAPO politicians Congress of Democrats politicians Members of the 1st National Assembly of Namibia Members of the 2nd National Assembly of Namibia Members of the 3rd National Assembly of Namibia Members of the 4th National Assembly of Namibia Members of the 5th National Assembly of Namibia Candidates for President of Namibia High commissioners of Namibia to the United Kingdom Namibian trade unionists South West African anti-apartheid activists Inmates of Robben Island People's Liberation Army of Namibia personnel