By Jeremiah Ndjoze

Former NUDO president Dr. Ester Utjiua Muinjangue has defended her decision to accept the position of deputy minister of health and social services, in the late President Hage Geingob’s administration, and accused her former colleagues at NUDO of not being entirely genuine when they voted her into the party’s presidency at its electoral college some six years ago. 
Muinjangue made these remarks in a multifaceted interview with Africa Speaks, an online portal that speaks to 
African newsmakers. 
Muinjangue was the first woman in Namibia to be elected as leader of a political formation and to run for the presidency. She scored a sit in parliament, and was later nominated by president Geingob to serve in a deputy ministerial capacity. 
She scooped the NUDO presidency ahead of current NUDO Member of Parliament, Vetaruhe Kandorozu.  
“They decided to push for me with the hope that upon my elections they will force me to relinquish the position. Their plan was to remove me so that I can eventually lose my seat in parliament. I was framed, labelled and called a puppet of Swapo,” Muinjangue said.

THE SPLIT

She maintained that things started falling apart within the party, after the split of the Ovaherero Traditional Authority (OTA), with one supporting the late Paramount Chief, Vekuii Rukoro, and another backing Ovitoto chief Vipuira Kapuuo. This was in sharp contrast to the preceding situation where NUDO president, Chief Kuaima Riruako, was also the paramount chief of the Ovaherero. 
Suddenly the party had two centres power, and when her ascendance to the presidency happened, she said, she refused to work with the Rukoro faction, aligning the party with the Kapuuo grouping, instead.
The late Rukoro was not a member of NUDO and this sparked power squabbles between them, Muinjangue said.
Rukoro has since passed-on, but the two factions still exist with Kapuuo having been succeeded by Dr. Hoze Riruako, while Rukoro was succeeded by Prof Mutjinde Katjiua.  “They forget very quickly, because during the time of Dr. Sam Nujoma, Rukoro was the first opposition politician, as President of Namibia National Front (NNF) to be appointed by the Swapo government as deputy minister of Justice,” Muinjangue revealed. 
She further revealed that during the same period, 
Reggie Diergardt, a United Democratic Front (UDF) member, was appointed as deputy minister of Youth and Sport, while Fanuel Kozonguizi, Namibia’s first Ombudsman was a member of the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA) 
“We campaign in order to run the country not to go and make noise in parliament. I have never regretted my appointment as deputy minister. [And] there was never a time that I was made to feel like an outsider,” she added.  

TOXIC ENVIRONMENT

Muinjangue resigned from NUDO earlier this year, despite the party securing one parliamentary a sit at the polls. 
“The environment was very toxic and I decided that I had more worth than the insults,” she revealed.
Muinjangue further revealed that she was told at an electoral college that she was not going to be at the top of the party’s parliamentary list because that would discourage NUDO members from voting.