Michaela Hübschle (born 21 September 1950 as Michaela Kuntze in

Otjiwarongo Otjiwarongo ( hz, beautiful place) is a city of 28,000 inhabitants in the Otjozondjupa Region of Namibia. It is the district capital of the Otjiwarongo electoral constituency and also the capital of Otjozondjupa. Otjiwarongo is situated in c ...

) 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 and former Deputy Minister for Prisons and Correctional Services.

Education and profession

After attending school in her hometown, Hübschle studied at the

University of Pretoria The University of Pretoria ( af, Universiteit van Pretoria, nso, Yunibesithi ya Pretoria) is a multi-campus public research university in Pretoria, the administrative and de facto capital of South Africa. The university was established in 1908 ...

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 ...

from 1970 to 1973. She graduated with a BA. She then worked as a translator for the German embassy in

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends eastward into the foot ...

until 1976. Hübschle then travelled to the Federal Republic of Germany and was active in the local environmental movement. In 1984, she returned to the

South West Africa South West Africa ( af, Suidwes-Afrika; german: Südwestafrika; nl, Zuidwest-Afrika) was a territory under South African administration from 1915 to 1990, after which it became modern-day Namibia. It bordered Angola (Portuguese colony before 1 ...

at that time and worked on various projects in

Katutura Katutura (Otjiherero for ''The place where people do not want to live'') is a township of Windhoek, Khomas Region, Namibia. Katutura was created in 1961 following the forced removal of Windhoek's black population from the Old Location, which a ...

, a township 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 ...

. Since 2000, Hübschle has been the chairman of the Criminals Return Into Society (CRIS), founded by her, which has been called Change since August 2009. The association is committed to start-up and life support for former prisoners and in the area of vocational support. It also organizes the Gildehaus, an informal forum for leading personalities from government and politics.

Political career

Hübschle was a member 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 from 1990 to 2000 for the SWAPO deputies of 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 ...

. In 1995, Hübschle was appointed Deputy Minister for Prisons and Correctional Services. She held this office until 2000. During her term, she applied the AIDS prevention program for free condoms for prisoners of conscience. This view, however, did not prevail in the government, as it was seen as supporting homosexuality. For the parliamentary elections in 2000, Hübschle was not recruited as a candidate after criticizing the abuse of prisoners in the context of the Caprivi conflict the previous year. In addition, she had called for the SWAPO leadership to apologize for the abuse of prisoners during the liberation struggle. In 2007, Hübschle, in an article co-authored with the SWAPO politician Shapua Kaukungua, threw in the party leadership a defective party-internal democracy and interventions in regional and local elections. Subsequently, the break with the SWAPO came. In the parliamentary elections in 2009, Hübschle ran for the oppositional

Rally for Democracy and Progress (Namibia) The Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) is a political party in Namibia. It was launched on 17 November 2007 under the leadership of Hidipo Hamutenya and Jesaya Nyamu, both former leading members of the ruling SWAPO party and cabinet minist ...

(RDP), whose central committee she is a member of. However, she did not succeed in entering parliament.

Personal life

Hübschle's parents were the German-Namibian farmer Eberhard Kuntze and the author Lisa Kuntze. Hübschle was married to the former head of the Namibian veterinary authority, Dr. Otto Hübschle, who died in 2008 at the age of 62. They had two children.

References

* Who's who of Southern Africa. Ken Donaldson, Johannesburg 1992, OCLC 7083249, S.549 (online in Google Book Search) * Graham Hopwood: Guide to Namibian Politics. 2nd edition. Namibia Institute for Democracy, Windhoek 2007. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hübschle, Michaela 1950 births Alumni of the University of Leeds Living people Members of the National Assembly (Namibia) Women members of the National Assembly (Namibia) People from Otjiwarongo SWAPO politicians Augustineum Secondary School alumni