- Who is President Hage Geingob?
Namibian President Hage Geingob has died at the age of 82 at a hospital in the capital Windhoek, where he was receiving medical treatment, according to a statement from Acting President Nangolo Mbumba.
Geingob passed away just after midnight, around 12:04 a.m. ET on Sunday, at Lady Pohamba Hospital with his wife Monica Geingos and his children by his side, the statement said, which was posted on the Presidency’s account on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Geingob was receiving treatment at the hospital after revealing in January he had been diagnosed with cancer.
He had returned last Wednesday from a trip to the United States, where he was undergoing a two-day treatment as part of a medical trial, according to his office.
“His medical team, as I informed the nation only yesterday, has been trying its utmost best to ensure that our president recovers. Regrettably, notwithstanding the team’s spirited effort to save his life, sadly, fellow Namibians, President Geingob passed on,” Mbumba said.
Mbumba appealed to the nation to “remain calm and collected” while the government makes state arrangements and preparations, saying further details will be announced at a later date.
He said cabinet had convened “with immediate effect in order to make the necessary state arrangements in this regard.”
Geingob had served as president since 2015 and was currently on his second term. He also served as the country’s first prime minister, a position he held from 1990 to 2002 under former President Sam Nujoma, after Namibia gained independence from South Africa.
A veteran of the country’s independence struggle, Mr Geingob had been diagnosed with cancer and revealed the details to the public last month.
Geingob’s deputy, Vice President Nangolo Mbumba, had said: Namibia “has lost… a distinguished servant of the people.”
According to the constitution, Mr Mbumba will now act as President as there was less than a year left of Mr Geingob’s second term in office. Presidential and parliamentary elections had already been scheduled for November.
Leaders from around the world have been sending condolence messages.
Among them is Cyril Ramaphosa, president of neighbouring South Africa, who described him as “a towering veteran of Namibia’s liberation from colonialism and apartheid”.
Mr Geinbob, a tall man with a deep, gravelly voice and a commanding presence was a long-serving member of the Swapo (South West Africa Peoples Organisation) party. It led the movement against apartheid South Africa, which had effectively annexed the country then known as South West Africa.
He lived in exile for 27 years, spending time in Botswana, the US and the UK, where he studied PhD in politics.
Mr Geingob came back to Namibia in 1989, a year before the country gained independence.
“Looking back, the journey of building a new Namibia has been worthwhile,” he wrote on coial media in 2020 while sharing a picture of him kissing the ground on his return.
“Even though we have made a lot of progress in developing our country, more work lies ahead to build an inclusive society.”
Mr Geingob became president in 2015 and was in his second and final term in office.
He had already been the country’s longest-serving prime minister – in the post for 12 years from 1990 and then again for a shorter stint in 2012.
SWAPO, which has been in power since independence in 1990, had chosen Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah as its Presidential candidate for November’s planned elections.
She is currently the Deputy Prime Minister, and will become the country’s first female President if she wins.