Reverend Dr Kaptein Hendrik Witbooi (traditional name ǃNanseb ǀGabemab; 7 January 1934, in Gibeon – 13 October 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 the seventh Captain of the ǀKhowesin clan. A member of SWAPO from 1976 until his death, Witbooi brought with him several clans of Namaqua into the liberation organisation. Imprisoned numerous times during the

Namibian War of Independence The South African Border War, also known as the Namibian War of Independence, and sometimes denoted in South Africa as the Angolan Bush War, was a largely asymmetric conflict that occurred in Namibia (then South West Africa), Zambia, and An ...

, Witbooi was first elected as Vice-President of SWAPO in 1984 and was re-elected for the last time in 1997. A member of the Constituent Assembly in 1989–90, Witbooi served in the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...

until his 2004 retirement, including a stint (1990-1995) as Minister of Labour and Manpower Development. Witbooi became Namibia's first Deputy Prime Minister in 1995. He served in that position until 2004. In October 2009 Witbooi was facing major medical problems and had slipped into a coma at the Roman Catholic Hospital in

. He died on 13 October due to

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

.Luqman Cloete, Christof Maletzky (14 October 2009)
Reverend Witbooi passes
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The Namibian ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

Personal

Witbooi was the great-grandson of Hendrik Witbooi, the early resistance leader who led his chiefly followers against European colonisation.

References

1934 births 2009 deaths People from Hardap Region Members of the National Assembly (Namibia) Nama people Namibian chiefs Deaths from cancer in Namibia SWAPO politicians Labour ministers of Namibia {{Namibia-politician-stub