Sade Gawanas 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 who has served as mayor of Windhoek since 1 December 2021. Previously, she was elected into the council of the City of Windhoek following the 2020 local elections. She is from the

Landless People's Movement The Landless People's Movement was an independent social movement in South Africa. It consisted of rural people and people living in shack settlements in cities. The Landless People's Movement boycotted parliamentary elections and had a histor ...

Career

Gawanas previously worked as a flight attendant for the national airline

Air Namibia Air Namibia (Pty) Limited, which traded as Air Namibia, was the national airline of Namibia, headquartered in the country's capital, Windhoek. It operated scheduled domestic, regional, and international passenger and cargo services, having its ...

before quitting to join active politics. This step was necessitated to comply with a directive by the

Electoral Commission of Namibia The Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) is an agency of the Government of Namibia. It was founded in 1992 under the Electoral Act 24 of 1992. The aim of the commission is to oversee all Namibian electoral activities starting from voter registra ...

which prohibits employees to stand as candidates for the National Assembly elections while holding onto their positions (Article 47 of the

Constitution of Namibia The Constitution of Namibia is the supreme law of the Republic of Namibia. Adopted on 9 February 1990, a month prior to Namibia's independence from apartheid South Africa, it was written by an elected constituent assembly. Preamble "Whereas ...

Personal life

Sade Gawanas is the niece of

Bience Gawanas Bience Philomina Gawanas (born 1956) is a Namibian lawyer. She was appointed in January 2018 as Special Adviser on Africa for the United Nations after having served as Commissioner for Social Affairs at the African Union Assembly of Heads of St ...

References

Living people Mayors of Windhoek Women mayors of places in Namibia 1989 births Landless People's Movement (Namibia) politicians 21st-century Namibian women politicians 21st-century Namibian politicians {{Namibia-politician-stub