McHenry Venaani

McHenry Venaani (born 8 September 1977) is a Namibian politician and the president of the Popular Democratic Movement, a party with sixteen seats in the National Assembly of Namibia and one seat in the National Council of Namibia. Venaani has been a member of the National Assembly from 2002 to 2010, in 2014, and since 2015. At the time of his appointment in 2002, he was Namibia's youngest MP.[1]

McHenry Venaani

MP
President of the Popular Democratic Movement
Assumed office
2013
Preceded byKatuutire Kaura
Personal details
Born (1977-09-08) 8 September 1977
Windhoek, South West Africa (now Namibia)
NationalityNamibian
Political partyPDM
Spouse(s)
Claodina Venaani
(
m. after 2005)
Children2
Alma materUniversity of Wolverhampton

Education

Born in Windhoek, Namibia, Venaani is a graduate of Dawid Bezuidenhout High School in Khomasdal, Windhoek. He studied at the University of Wolverhampton.

Career

Considered a rising star in the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA), Venaani ran for the top position in the party in 2005 against Katuutire Kaura. In that election, Venaani lost and also lost his position as party secretary general. In November 2008, Venaani retook his position as secretary general, beating Alois Gende by a margin of 111 to 35 in party elections.[2]

Venaani was placed on DTA's electoral list prior to the 2009 general election, but the party did not receive enough votes for his re-election.[1] In the 2013 DTA elective central committee meeting, Venaani defeated Kaura by a margin of 96 to 52 and assumed the party presidency.[3] When Kaura was expelled from the DTA in February 2014, Venaani also took over his seat in Parliament,[4] 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.[5] Venaani re-entered parliament in March 2015 after the 2014 election as top-placed member of the DTA.[6]

On 4 November 2017, days after its 40th anniversary, the DTA was renamed the Popular Democratic Movement at Venaani's suggestion. This was done to facilitate modernisation of the party, and to shed its "colonial" name.[7]

In the 2019 Namibian general election Venaani ran as presidential candidate of the strongest opposition party. He gathered a disappointing 5.3% of the popular vote, coming in as distant third behind Hage Geingob and Panduleni Itula. His party, however, achieved a very strong result and gained 16 seats in the National Assembly, up 11 from the previous election.[8]

Personal life

He has been married to Cloudina Venaani since 2005 and has two children.

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References
  1. "Who’s in, who’s out", The Namibian, 7 December 2009
  2. Maletsky, Christof (17 November 2008). "Venaani back in DTA seat". The Namibian. Alt URL
  3. Immanuel, Shinovene (9 September 2013). "Youth take over at DTA". The Namibian. Archived from the original on 10 September 2013. Retrieved 9 September 2013.
  4. 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.
  5. Kahiurika, Ndanki (13 February 2014). "Kaura is back". The Namibian. Archived from the original on 21 February 2014. Retrieved 15 November 2014.
  6. "So lyk die NV" [That's the NA]. Die Republikein (in Afrikaans). 3 December 2014. Archived from the original on 24 February 2015. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
  7. Iikela, Sakeus (6 November 2017). "Exit DTA, enter PDM". The Namibian.
  8. Iikela, Sakeus (2 December 2019). "Reduced victory ... Swapo, Geingob drop votes". The Namibian. p. 1.
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