Hage Geingob - The African Mirror

Feb

2024

Namibia’s late president Geingob buried

NAMIBIA'S late president Hage Geingob, who died in hospital on February 4, weeks after being diagnosed with cancer, was buried at the Heroes Acre with thousands of mourners, including 25 heads of state and former presidents in attendance. The burial was on the outskirts of Windhoek following 20 days of mourning. Soldiers gave Geingob a 21-gun salute while K-8 fighter jets flew past. Geingob, 82, Namibia's two-time prime minister and third president since its independence from minority-ruled South Africa in 1990, has been in charge of the sparsely populated and mostly arid southern African nation since 2015. He was serving his…

Feb

2024

By NYASHA NYAUNGWA

Tributes for late Namibia president, 1st woman head of state on the cards

NEWS

TRIBUTES have poured in for Hein Geingob, the Namibian president who lost his battle against cancer on Sunday. South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa paid a warm tribute to Geingob both as freedom fighter and head of state. Ramaphosa said: "Today, South Africa joins the people of our sister state Namibia in mourning the passing of a leader, patriot and friend of South Africa. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Geingob family and the people of Namibia who have lost an outstanding leader in a year in which Namibia, like South Africa, is due to hold elections. “I am deeply…

Feb

2024

By TIM COCKS

Namibia’s President Hage Geingob, 82, dies after cancer diagnosis

NEWS

NAMIBIA'S President Hage Geingob, 82, died in hospital early, the presidency said, weeks after he was diagnosed with cancer. Geingob had been in charge of the thinly populated and mostly arid southern African country since 2015, the year he announced he had survived prostate cancer. Vice President Nangolo Mbumba takes the helm in Namibia - a mining hotspot with significant deposits of diamonds and the electric car battery ingredient lithium - until presidential and parliamentary elections at the end of the year. A presidency post on social media platform X did not give a cause of death, but late last month the…

Jan

2024

By The African Mirror

Namibia’s President Geingob to undergo cancer treatment, presidency says

NEWS

NAMIBIA'S President Hage Geingob was diagnosed with cancer during a medical check-up earlier this month and will undergo treatment, the office of the 82-year-old head of state said. A statement from his office did not give further details about his condition but said he would continue to carry out presidential duties. Namibia is due to hold presidential and parliamentary elections at the end of 2024. Geingob told the public in 2014 when he was prime minister that he had survived prostate cancer. He became president the following year. "As part of regular annual medical examinations, the Presidency informed the Namibian…

May

2023

By The African Mirror

Namibia and South Africa’s ruling parties share a heroic history – but their 2024 electoral prospects look weak

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

NAMIBIAN president Hage Geingob used his recent state visit to South Africa to also address a meeting of the national executive committee of the governing party, the African National Congress (ANC). This underscored the ANC’s historic ties to Namibia’s governing party, South West Africa People’s Organisation (Swapo). According to President Cyril Ramaphosa, who also heads the ANC, the party had a “wonderful engagement” with Geingob, who posted on Facebook: As former liberation movements, we learn from one another, a manifestation of the deep bonds of solidarity formed during our struggle against oppression. Authors HENNING MELBER, Extraordinary Professor, Department of Political…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

Namibian rescues ravaged economy

COVID-19

NAMIBIAN President Hage Geingob has appointed an 11-member Business Rescue Task Force to review business and insolvency legislation with the aim of rescuing businesses in financial distress. The Southern African nation, whose mining and tourism-dependent economy has been ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic, is in the midst of a deadly third wave of infections that is threatening to take more businesses under. The task force, which consists of individuals with skills and experience in corporate management, banking, legal and insolvency laws, legal drafting and entrepreneurship, will start work on July 1 for a period of eight months, the president's office…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

It’s a ‘travesty’ that some nations are unable to start COVID-19 vaccinations – WHO

COVID-19

IT is a travesty that some countries still have not had enough access to vaccines to begin inoculating health workers and the most vulnerable people against COVID-19, the head of the World Health Organization said on Tuesday. "Scaling up production and equitable distribution remains the major barrier to ending the acute stage of the COVID-19 pandemic," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference. "It's a travesty that in some countries health workers and those at-risk groups remain completely unvaccinated." The president of Namibia, Hage Geingob, one of several world leaders invited to address the WHO news conference for…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

Namibia’s democracy enters new era as ruling Swapo continues to lose its lustre

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

THE results of the latest regional and local government elections in Namibia show just how much the political landscape has changed in the country since independence from South Africa in 1990. HENNING MELBER, Extraordinary Professor, Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria The South West Africa People’s Organisation (Swapo) – the former liberation movement that has governed the country since independence – used to win by huge margins. But, increasingly, Namibians are losing trust in its ability to run the country. They are making different political choices. For the first time, Swapo suffered numerous defeats at regional and local levels…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

Namibia faces tough challenge to reverse apartheid legacy – president

NEWS

AXEL THREFALL and NYASHA NYAUNGWA NAMIBIAN President Hage Geingob says the southwestern African country must take care in its efforts to reverse the legacy of racist white minority rule, so as not to be seen as grabbing wealth. Speaking at a virtual session at an event organised by international organisation Horasis, Geingob said Namibia's status as an upper-middle-income country belied the fact that some 80% of its population, mostly Black, was living in poverty, while whites who make up less than 5% of Namibia's 2.4 million people were wealthy. "We are proud to be an upper middle income country ...…

Sep

2020

By The African Mirror

Namibia to allow international travel, lift COVID state of emergency

COVID-19

THE Namibian government has announced that it will open up the country for international travel from September 18, as it ends a six-month-long state of emergency with the average number of daily coronavirus cases trending downwards. President Hage Geingob, during a media briefing, said the government had considered the economic implications of continuing the restrictions and the state of preparedness of its hospitals. The announcement comes a day after South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the country would allow international travel from October and lifted almost all lockdown restrictions with effect from September 21. Namibia's economy which relies heavily on…