Panduleni Filemon Bango Itula (born 2 August 1957) is a
Namibia
Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...
n politician, dentist, lawyer, and former Chief Dentist at the
Katutura State Hospital
Katutura State Hospital is a hospital in Katutura, a black township of Windhoek, Namibia. Together with the Windhoek Central Hospital, it is one of two State Hospitals in the Windhoek area, and Namibia's only general referral hospital. In November ...
, as well as a former
SWAPO party school lecturer. He was an independent presidential candidate for the
Presidency of Namibia in the
2019 Namibian general election
General elections were held in Namibia on 27 November 2019. Ballots were cast using electronic voting. A total of eleven candidates ran for the presidency and fifteen political parties contested the National Assembly elections.
Hage Geingob of S ...
and finished second after
Hage Geingob. He is a founder and president of the
Independent Patriots for Change
The Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) is a political party in Namibia. It was founded by Panduleni Itula in August 2020. As an independent presidential candidate in the 2019 Namibian general election, November 2019 election, Itula won the b ...
in Namibia.
Early life and education
During the apartheid years, Itula was a
SWAPO Party Youth League (SPYL) leader in Windhoek, and after several unsuccessful attempts to capture him by the apartheid regime, Itula was arrested at the SWAPO office in April 1979. He was incarcerated, tortured and spent some of this period in solitary confinement. After enduring repression, imprisonment and torture at the hands of the
apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
regime, he was released in January 1980. He left Namibia for London, and arrived on 1 April 1981. The trip to London was organised by anti-apartheid activist
Anton Lubowski
Anton Theodor Eberhard August Lubowski (3 February 1952 – 12 September 1989) was a Namibian anti-apartheid activist and advocate. He was a member of the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO). In 1989 he was assassinated by operat ...
, and in London, Itula stayed with exiled Anglican Bishop
Colin Winter
Colin O'Brien Winter (10 October 1928 – 17 November 1981), was an English Anglicanism, Anglican bishop, who served as Bishop of Damaraland, a diocese of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa (now the Anglican Church of Southern Africa) ...
. Itula then worked for the SPYL in London, continuing to lobby for
Namibian independence
The history of Namibia has passed through several distinct stages from being colonised in the late nineteenth century to Namibia's independence on 21 March 1990.
From 1884, Namibia was a German colony: German South West Africa. After the First W ...
.
He studied in London at the
University of Bristol
, mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'')
, established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter
, type ...
Dental School, and was granted a
dental degree by
The Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1994. In 1998, he also obtained a Master in Medical Science degree in oral surgery from the
University of Sheffield
, mottoeng = To discover the causes of things
, established = – University of SheffieldPredecessor institutions:
– Sheffield Medical School – Firth College – Sheffield Technical School – University College of Sheffield
, type = Pu ...
. He also obtained additional qualifications in 2002, when he became a fellow in dental surgery of the
Royal College of Physicians and
Surgeons of Glasgow and of the
Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd) is a professional organisation of surgeons. The College has seven active faculties, covering a broad spectrum of surgical, dental, and other medical practices. Its main campus is located on ...
. In April 2005 he obtained a Post-Graduate Diploma in Dentistry (Sedation & Pain Control) at the
University of the Western Cape. Itula also studied for a Masters in Law. Itula had a dental practice at
Whitley Bay, a town near
Newcastle in north-east
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. After 33 years in the United Kingdom, he came back to Namibia in December 2013. Itula was involved in a long-standing feud with the Medical and Dental Council of Namibia over registration as a dental specialist. He previously applied with the council in 2001 and again in 2002 to have his qualifications recognised, and was informed in 2008 that the council had decided not to consider his application because regulations under the Medical and Dental Act of 2008 were not yet in place. Itula eventually won the case and the Council was ordered by the Windhoek High Court to register him.
2019 Presidential candidacy
Despite being a SWAPO member since 1971, Itula declared his intentions to run for
presidency
A presidency is an administration or the executive, the collective administrative and governmental entity that exists around an office of president of a state or nation. Although often the executive branch of government, and often personified by a ...
in the
2019 Namibian general election
General elections were held in Namibia on 27 November 2019. Ballots were cast using electronic voting. A total of eleven candidates ran for the presidency and fifteen political parties contested the National Assembly elections.
Hage Geingob of S ...
as an independent candidate. He subsequently received threats of expulsion from SWAPO. The party cautioned Itula that they already fielded
Hage Geingob as its candidate for state president at its contested elective congress in 2017. Itula, however, downplayed the warning, citing that the ruling party at the moment did not have a legitimate candidate for the presidential and National Assembly elections, as it has violated the constitution in the events leading up to the congress in 2017, and also does not have a legitimate disciplinary structure to hold members accountable for violating the party's constitution, thus maintaining that he would not resign from the party despite the threats of expulsion.
Itula had previously called for the resignation of former health minister
Bernard Haufiku
Bernard Shidute Haufiku is a Namibian medical doctor and politician. He served as Minister of Health and Social Services from 2015 to 2018. During his tenure as minister, Haufiku voiced views against corruption and in favour of legalising abortion ...
as well as SWAPO Secretary General
Sophia Shaningwa
Sophia Shaningwa (born 13 May 1959 in Outapi, Namibia) is a Namibian politician, currently serving as Secretary General of the SWAPO party of Namibia. She previously served as Minister for Urban and Rural Development from 21 March 2015 to February ...
in January 2019, claiming that she was "not fit for the job".
The
Namibian Economic Freedom Fighters
The Namibian Economic Freedom Fighters (NEFF) is a political party in Namibia. It was formed in June 2014. The party has close links to the South African Economic Freedom Fighters. Economically, the two parties are similar, with the NEFF descri ...
(NEFF) and the
Republican Party
Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party.
Republican Party may also refer to:
Africa
*Republican Party (Liberia)
* Republican Part ...
(RP), both without a realistic chance in the
previous election, withdrew their presidential candidates in early November and instead endorsed Itula.
Itula finished second in the presidential election, gathering 29.4% of the votes. His candidacy was the main reason for the loss of votes for Hage Geingob compared to the previous election, who nevertheless won a second term in office.
Because his independent candidacy was seen as "disruptive behaviour by not accepting the party's choice of Geingob as its sole candidate in the 2019 presidential election", Itula was expelled from SWAPO in March 2020.
Personal life
Itula is an avid reader and writer. He is married to Shonag MacKenzie
and lives in
Windhoek
Windhoek (, , ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek in 20 ...
.
[
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Itula, Panduleni
1957 births
21st-century Namibian politicians
Living people
Namibian lawyers
People from Oshikoto Region
Ovambo people
SWAPO politicians
Candidates for President of Namibia
Namibian activists
Namibian political scientists
People from Windhoek
Namibian expatriates in the United Kingdom
Augustineum Secondary School alumni
Alumni of the University of Bristol
South West African anti-apartheid activists