BY MBONO MDLULI
MBABANE – Deputy Prime (DPM) Minister Thulisile Dladla represented His Majesty King Mswati III when she took part in the funeral of Namibia’s founding president Dr Samuel Shafiishuna Nujoma.
Nujoma was buried on March 1, 2025 at the Hero’s Acre in Windhoek. The DPM went there with Minister of Sports, Culture and Youth Affairs Bongani Nzima.
According to Reuters, African leaders past and present gathered in Namibia on Saturday to bury the country’s “founding father” Sam Nujoma, who challenged colonialism and a military occupation by South Africa’s racist white minority government.
Dignitaries including South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Zimbabwe’s President Emerson Mnangagwa, former South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki, former Mozambique’s President you Chisanno, former Botswana’s President Lieutenant General Ian Khama, and former Tanzania’s President Jakaya Kikwete attended the funeral of Nujoma, who rose from herding cattle as a boy to lead the sparsely-populated, mostly desert southern African country on March 21, 1990.
Namibia’s President Nangolo Mbamba was quoted as saying, “We fought under your command, … won the liberation struggle, and forever removed apartheid colonialism from the face of Namibia.”
Angola’s President João Lorenzo was also quoted by Eswatini TV as having described Dr Nujoma as a hero, whose work will be kept for future generations to learn from. Dr Nujoma is survived by his wife, three children, 24 grand children, and 11 great grandchildren.
