Namibia President passes on after battle with Cancer

Namibia’s President, Hage Geingob, has died in a hospital in Windhoek, the presidential office said in a statement.

Geingob died at 82 on Sunday.

Geingob, who was serving his second term as president, revealed last month that he was receiving treatment for cancer.

“It is with utmost sadness and regret that I inform you that our beloved Dr. Hage Geingob, the President of the Republic of Namibia has passed on today, Sunday 4 February 2024 at around 00h04 at Lady Pohamba Hospital where he was receiving medical treatment from his medical team. At his side, was his dear wife Madame Monica Geingos, and his children.

“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.

“Fellow Namibians, the Namibian nation has lost a distinguished servant of the people, a liberation struggle icon, the chief architect of our constitution, and the pillar of the Namibian house,” read the statement on X, formerly Twitter, signed by acting president Nangolo Mbumba.

A biopsy following a routine medical check-up in January had revealed “cancerous cells”, Geingob’s office said at the time.

First elected president in 2014, Geingob was Namibia’s longest serving prime minister and third president.

In 2013, Geingob underwent brain surgery, and last year he underwent an aortic operation in neighbouring South Africa.

Up until his death, he had been receiving treatment at Lady Pohamba Hospital in Windhoek.

“At this moment of deepest sorrow, I appeal to the nation to remain calm and collected while the Government attends to all necessary state arrangements, preparations and other protocols.”

He said the Cabinet would convene immediately to make the necessary state arrangements.

Born in a village in northern Namibia in 1941, Geingob was the southern African country’s first president outside of the Ovambo ethnic group, which makes up more than half the country’s population.

He took up activism against South Africa’s apartheid regime, which at the time ruled over Namibia, from his early schooling years before being driven into exile.

He spent almost three decades in Botswana and the United States, leaving the former for the latter in 1964.

Namibia is to hold presidential and national assembly elections towards the end of the year.