Hans-Erik Staby (8 September 1935 in

Otjimbingwe Otjimbingwe (also: Otjimbingue) is a settlement in the Erongo Region of central Namibia. It has approximately 8,000 inhabitants. History The area was already a temporary settlement of some Herero in the early 18th century. Their chief Tjiponda c ...

-30 November 2009 in

Windhoek Windhoek (, , ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek in 202 ...

) 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 and one of the country's leading architects. A German Namibian, Staby was a member of the

National Assembly of Namibia The National Assembly is the lower chamber of Namibia's bicameral Parliament. Its laws must be approved by the National Council, the upper house. Since 2014, it has a total of 104 members. 96 members are directly elected through a system of clos ...

from the

Constituent Assembly A constituent assembly (also known as a constitutional convention, constitutional congress, or constitutional assembly) is a body assembled for the purpose of drafting or revising a constitution. Members of a constituent assembly may be elected b ...

prior to independence in 1989 until resignation in 1997 with the

Democratic Turnhalle Alliance The Popular Democratic Movement (PDM), formerly the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA), is an amalgamation of political parties in Namibia, registered as one singular party for representation purposes. In coalition with the United Democratic ...

(DTA). Staby died on 30 November 2009 at his home in Windhoek. He was elected to the White Legislative Assembly in 1980 as a member of the Republican Party (RP), which was then part of the DTA. He served in newly independent Namibia's Constituent Assembly in 1990 and was the DTA spokesperson on trade and finance in the NA from 1990 to 1997. In November 2003 he joined Action for Democratic Change – a group of former RP members who decided to stay with the DTA rather than join the breakaway led by

Henk Mudge Henry Ferdinand Mudge (known as Henk) (born February 18, 1952) is a Namibian politician and President of the Republican Party.Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation The Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, ( sv, Stiftelsen Dag Hammarskjölds Minnesfond) is a non-profit foundation based in Uppsala, Sweden, that aims to strengthen policy on international cooperation, development and peacebuilding through its variou ...

, Henning Melber, Staby worked tirelessly for the promotion of democracy and human rights in Namibia. Staby was the Chairperson of th
Namibia Institute for Democracy (NID)
and of the Namibian-German Foundation. He was also a member of the Namibian branch of the anti-corruption watchdog
Transparency International (TI)
He was the President of th
Namibia Cricket Board (NCB)
from 1986 to 1999 and Patron of the NCB from 2000 to 2003. Staby made a valid and tremendous impact on the development of cricket in Namibia. He was a gifted speaker and was able to relate and recall many stories on the early days of cricket in Namibia. He played league cricket for

Wanderers Cricket Club Wanderers Cricket Club is a Barbadian cricket club. The club plays in the Barbados Cricket Association Elite Division, the highest division of domestic cricket in Barbados. A multi-sport club, Wanderers also possesses a masters football team and ...

and after retiring from the game became the club’s and national team cricket scorer. He subsequently became President of Wanderers Cricket Club and was responsible for building a successful and popular club with not only wonderful cricket but squash, hockey and rugby facilities. After standing down as president Hans-Erik Staby was bestowed as an Honorary member of Cricket Namibia. Survivors include his wife, brother, two sisters, four sons and 11 grandchildren.Groot seder val onverwags
Die Republikein, 2 December 2009

Education

Staby obtained a Bachelor of Architecture degree,

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

, South Africa (1959) and enlisted with the Technische Universität, Berlin, West Germany (1960) for post-graduate studies.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Staby, Hans Erik 1935 births 2009 deaths Members of the National Assembly (Namibia) Namibian people of German descent White Namibian people Popular Democratic Movement politicians People from Erongo Region University of Cape Town alumni Technical University of Berlin alumni