FOUNDING president Sam Nujoma has paid tribute to the late former Angolan president José Eduardo dos Santos, saying he had never wavered in his support for the people of Namibia.

"Despite the brutal attacks by the apartheid regime, former president José Eduardo dos Santos stood firm and never wavered in his support for the people of Namibia and the region when he took over as president of the Republic of Angola.

"It is this shared past that makes us, as Namibians, feel the loss of former president Dos Santos all the more deeply," Nujoma said at Dos Santos state funeral in Luanda earlier today.

Nujoma said Africa is mourning the passing of a statesman and a devoted Pan-Africanist.

"I last met former president José Eduardo dos Santos on 16 October 2021, at his residence in Luanda, when he returned to Angola from Barcelona, Spain, where he had been hospitalised since April 2019.

"On that occasion, he told me that he was going back to Barcelona for further medical treatment, until I heard the sad news of his passing on Friday, 8 July 2022 in Spain," Nujoma said.

He continued: "As Namibians, we will forever regard the Republic of Angola as our home away from home when during the darkest moments in our struggle against apartheid, Angola gave us shelter, sustenance and support.

"Angola's founding president Dr Agostinho Neto was very determined that Angola would not rest until the whole of Southern Africa was free.

"In this regard, we recall his prophetic words when he assured Africa and the world that, 'Angola shall be on its own will, a revolutionary trench in Africa to Namibia, Zimbabwe

and South Africa in the continuation of our struggle'," Nujoma said.