President of Namibia, Hage Geingob died after a cancerous diagnosis.
Namibia's President Hage Geingob, aged 82, passed away in a hospital early Sunday, succumbing to cancer weeks after his diagnosis. Geingob, who had led the sparsely populated southern African nation since 2015, initially revealed surviving prostate cancer in that same year.
The presidency announced that Vice President Nangolo Mbumba will assume leadership until the scheduled presidential and parliamentary elections at the year's end.
Born in 1941, Geingob played a crucial role in Namibia's politics, predating its independence from South Africa in 1990. He chaired the committee that formulated Namibia's constitution and served as its first prime minister until 2002. Geingob joined the South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) as an advocate for independence, eventually becoming its vice president in 2007.
SWAPO has maintained political dominance in Namibia since independence, although the country, a former German colony, grapples with significant wealth disparities despite its upper-middle-income status. Geingob acknowledged the challenges in developing a nation marked by historical injustices and strived for shared prosperity.
Geingob's political journey included stints as trade and industry minister and a return to the prime ministerial role in 2012. Despite winning the 2014 election with 87% support, he narrowly avoided a runoff in the 2019 poll following a government bribery scandal involving fishing quotas. Geingob lamented wealth concentration among the white minority and grappled with addressing racial divides without endorsing drastic measures.
In addressing economic disparities, Geingob dismissed a policy requiring white-owned businesses to sell a 25% stake to Black Namibians as impractical, emphasizing the complexities of the historical racial divide. His passing occurred at Lady Pohamba Hospital in Windhoek, where he received medical care from his team. Namibia mourns the loss of a leader who navigated the complexities of post-independence development and sought to break the chains of past injustices.??
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