The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) joins the people of Namibia and the continent in mourning the passing of Namibia's founding President Sam Nujoma.
Nujoma died on Saturday aged 95, after a three-week stay in hospital. Born Samuel Shafishuna (lightning) Daniel Nujoma on 12 May 1929 at Etunda in northern Namibia, he became Namibia's first president after the country attained independence in 1990. The first of 11 children, he spent his childhood tending to his siblings, herding cattle and cultivating the land, in what was then South West Africa (Namibia), a German colony administered by apartheid South Africa.
A Finnish Missionary school in Okahao provided Nujoma's primary education. At age 17 he became a contract worker in Walvis Bay, before joining the South African Railways as a cleaner in 1949 in Windhoek. It was at this point that he became politically active in the organised contract labour movement.
In 1959 Nujoma co-founded the Ovamboland People's Organisation, spelling a new wave of resistance against colonial rule. Forced removal protests around this time saw police kill 11 protesters and seriously injure 44. This marked a turning point in the resistance with political activists facing increasing repression, Nujoma left the country for exile the next year to campaign internationally. In April of the same year the Ovamboland People's Organisation became the South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) with Nujoma as its first President - an office he held until 2007.
In 1967, SWAPO took up arms in its struggle against South Africa's occupation. The war raged on for more than 20 years; thousands of lives were lost.
During his first term in office as head of state (1990 to 1995), much like South Africa's Father of the Nation, Nelson Mandela, Nujoma focused on reconciliation and nation building. He accepted the constitutional status quo that kept the white minority privileges intact while social inequities persisted.
Nujoma was President for three terms after the National Assembly exclusively amended the constitution so he could serve a third term (2000-2005). The clause was restricted to him. He retired from the SWAPO presidency in 2007. The National Assembly bestowed on him the title, Founding Father of the Namibian Nation, while SWAPO dubbed him Leader of the Namibian Revolution. A much-loved figure, his legacy will live on.
This is a painful loss not only to our sister liberation movement, SWAPO, but the entire Namibian nation. COSATU and the Tripartite Alliance with the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party shared the trenches with SWAPO in the fight against the apartheid regime, colonialism and the liberation of the Southern African region. These bonds were forged together in Robben Island where the likes of Andimba Toivo Ja Toivo (co-founder of SWAPO) shared cells with Madiba to exile where both SWAPO and the ANC-led Alliance had their headquarters in Lusaka, Zambia, to the military training academies and universities across the then Soviet Union, and most critically to the battlefields of Angola where the joint forces of Angola with the SWAPO and the ANC's military wings; the People's Liberation Army of Namibia and Umkhonto we Sizwe respectively, with the heroic support of the Cuban Armed Forces defeated the apartheid regime.
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We owe it to the gallant sacrifices of the Namibian people led by President Nujoma, to deepen and strengthen the bonds between our two peoples at all levels.
COSATU sends its sincerest condolences to his wife Katjimune Nujoma, his children, SWAPO, the National Union of Namibian Workers and the wider Namibian nation. Your loss is our loss.
Lala kahle Qhawe!
Issued by COSATU
