James Wilfred "Buddy" Wentworth (17 January 1937 – 4 June 2014) was a

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

n politician. He was a member of the SWAPO fraction of the

Constituent Assembly of Namibia Below is a list of members of the Constituent Assembly of Namibia, which became the National Assembly of Namibia upon independence in March 1990. Individual members were selected by political parties voted for in the 1989 election, the first de ...

and served as Deputy Minister in several education-related portfolios in the

first First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

, second and third National Assemblies of Namibia. At the time he retired in 2005 he was one of two longest serving Deputy Ministers of Namibia. Wentworth came to

from

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

in 1970 and worked as teacher in Rehoboth, and as school principal at Tamariskia Primary School,

Swakopmund Swakopmund (german: Mouth of the Swakop) is a city on the coast of western Namibia, west of the Namibian capital Windhoek via the B2 main road. It is the capital of the Erongo administrative district. The town has 44,725 inhabitants and covers ...

. He joined SWAPO in 1972. Wentworth was a founding chairperson of the Franco-Namibian Cultural Centre in Windhoek, and chaired the National Commission for Unesco. He was a practicing Muslim. He was married twice, and had 10 children. He was a recipient of the

Ordre des Palmes Académiques A suite, in Western classical music and jazz, is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral/ concert band pieces. It originated in the late 14th century as a pairing of dance tunes and grew in scope to comprise up to five dances, sometimes with ...

for his contribution to the Namibian independence struggle. He died of heart failure on 4 June 2014 at his home in Olympia, Windhoek, aged 77.

References

1937 births 2014 deaths Members of the National Assembly (Namibia) SWAPO politicians Government ministers of Namibia Place of birth missing Disease-related deaths in Namibia Namibian Muslims Recipients of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques {{Namibia-politician-stub