McHenry Venaani

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

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.[3]

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.[2] In the 2013 DTA elective central committee meeting, Venaani defeated Kaura by a margin of 96 to 52 and assumed the party presidency.[1] 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]

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