Namibia: death of President Hage Geingob
The President of Namibia, Hage Geingob, died this morning of February 4 at the age of 82. The presidency announced his death in the early hours of the morning, in the hospital where he was being treated for cancer which had not been discovered until January 2024. The third president of Namibia, Hage Geingob was a figure of the independence of country, and a staunch opponent of the apartheid regime.
Namibian President Hage Geingob at the 72nd United Nations General Assembly in New York in September 2017 (illustrative image). ©Jewel SAMAD/AFP
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“
It is with the greatest sadness and regret that I inform you that our beloved Dr. Hage G. Geingob, the President of the Republic of Namibia, passed away today
,” read a statement posted on the social network X (formerly Twitter), signed by the new interim head of state, Nangolo Mbumba, until then vice-president
Fierce activist
Born in 1941 in the north of the country, Hage Geingob was an anti-apartheid activist from a very young age, at a time when South Africa governed the Namibian territory, writes our correspondent in Johannesburg
,
Joséphine Kloeckner
. Then it was exile, twenty-seven years outside his native land, first in neighboring Botswana, then in the United States, where he continued to campaign for the independence of Namibia. He is the representative on the American continent and at the United Nations of the Swapo liberation movement, today the ruling party.
It was in 1989, at the age of 48, that he finally returned to
Namibia
, on the eve of independence. He became its first Prime Minister, a position he held for fifteen years. In 2014, he was elected president, acclaimed by voters. Despite a first term marred by a recession and allegations of corruption, he was re-elected in 2019. That year, documents made public by WikiLeaks notably suggested that government officials had received bribes from an Icelandic company which wanted to secure access to Namibia's fishing resources. The year 2024 was to be his last as head of state.
“
The great loss of a visionary leader
”
President Geingob “
was a veteran of Namibia’s liberation from colonialism and apartheid. He was also very influential in the solidarity shown by the people of Namibia to the people of South Africa so that we can be free today
,” said South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. For his part, Kenyan President William Ruto praised on X the memory of a president who “
believed in a unified Africa and strongly defended the voice and visibility of the continent on the world stage
”. Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu paid tribute to “
a dear brother, a venerable Pan-Africanist
”, while Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud spoke of “
a respected voice on the African continent
”, and that of Burundi, Evariste Ndayishimiye, “
the great loss of a visionary leader
”.
Namibians learned only two weeks ago that President Hage Geingob was suffering from cancer, identified according to the presidency during routine medical checks, specifies our correspondent in Johannesburg,
Joséphine Kloeckner
.
It is therefore a shock and a surprise, even if the 82-year-old president had already had medical problems, notably a brain operation in 2013, and another on the aorta last year. This mandate was his last, before the general elections scheduled for the end of 2024.
In the meantime, it is the vice-president, Nangolo Mbumba, who is acting. He was invested Sunday afternoon. And he immediately named his replacement as vice-president, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, 71 years old. She is none other than the presidential candidate of the ruling party, Swapo, of which she is a leading figure. She currently holds, among other things, the chair of Minister of International Relations. If elected, she will become Namibia's first female president.
(With AFP
)
Read alsoPresidential and legislative elections in Namibia: contested power
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