John Mueneni Shaetonhodi (born 1 May 1949) is 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, businessperson and trade unionist.

Career

Shaetonhodi worked for the

Consolidated Diamond Mines Consolidated may refer to: *Consolidated (band) **''¡Consolidated!'', a 1989 extended play *Consolidated Aircraft (later Convair), an aircraft manufacturer *Consolidated city-county *Consolidated Communications * Consolidated school district *Con ...

, the Namibian subsidiary of

De Beers De Beers Group is an international corporation that specializes in diamond mining, diamond exploitation, diamond retail, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors. The company is active in open-pit, large-scale alluvial and c ...

, in the 1980s and became the first president of the

Mineworkers Union of Namibia The Mineworkers Union of Namibia (MUN) is one of the most powerful of Namibia's trade unions. It plays a leading public role in the Namibian political space and is an ally of the ruling South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) government. M ...

from 1986 to 1995. He lived and worked in the southern town of

Oranjemund Oranjemund (German for ''"Mouth of Orange"'') is a diamond mining town of 4,000 inhabitants situated in the ǁKaras Region of the extreme southwest of Namibia, on the northern bank of the Orange River mouth at the border to South Africa. Histo ...

, where he was an activist with

SWAPO The South West Africa People's Organisation (, SWAPO; af, Suidwes-Afrikaanse Volks Organisasie, SWAVO; german: Südwestafrikanische Volksorganisation, SWAVO), officially known as the SWAPO Party of Namibia, is a political party and former ind ...

during the Namibian War of Independence. He was detained without trial by the South African forces from April 1979 to January 1980 and placed under house arrest from 1980 to 1983.

Political life

Shaetonhodi became a member of the National Assembly of Namibia in 1995. In that same year, he was appointed deputy Minister of Labour and Human Resources and served as acting Minister of Labour and Social Welfare from 1997-1999 following the death of

Moses ǁGaroëb Moses Mague ǁGaroëb (14 April 1942, in Arixas near Mariental – 19 September 1997, in Windhoek) was a Namibian politician, founding member of SWAPO, and member of SWAPO's Politburo and Central Committee. During his political career, ǁGar ...

. From 1999 until he left the National Assembly in 2002, he served as deputy Minister of Works, Transport and Communication. In 2001 while still in the

cabinet of Namibia The Cabinet of Namibia is an appointed body that was established by Chapter 6 (Articles 35-42) of the Constitution of Namibia. It is mandated to include the following positions: the President of Namibia, the Prime Minister of Namibia and any pos ...

, Shaetonhodi was named director of the railway parastatal TransNamib. He stayed as director of TransNamib until August 2007, when his contract was not renewed.

References

1949 births Living people Namibian trade unionists SWAPO politicians Members of the National Assembly (Namibia) Labour ministers of Namibia TransNamib Railway {{Namibia-politician-stub