Benjamin Hauwanga, commonly known as B.H., (born 24 September 1961 in

Tsumeb , nickname = , settlement_type = City , motto = ''Glück Auf'' (German language, German for ''Good luck'') , image_skyline = Welcome to tsumeb.jpg , imagesize = , image_caption ...

Oshikoto Oshikoto is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia, named after Lake Otjikoto. Its capital is Omuthiya. The city of Tsumeb, Otjikoto's capital until 2008, and the towns of Omuthiya and Oniipa are also situated in this region. , Oshikoto had 112, ...

) 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 businessman. His parents separated while he was a young boy; his mother single-handedly raised him, although his father visited the family regularly. He has eight siblings. He was fascinated with business at a very young age; as a child he sold indigenous food after school to contribute to the household income while his mother worked as a

domestic worker A domestic worker or domestic servant is a person who works within the scope of a residence. The term "domestic service" applies to the equivalent occupational category. In traditional English contexts, such a person was said to be "in service ...

. As with every business, money is the key and the main objective: Whenever he got, he used the change to buy sweets and resold them at school to get more money and increase cash-flow. At the age of nine, he started cleaning yards and got paid weekly. This was a great incentive for him but later he realized that the money coming in weekly was not enough to buy enough stock to satisfy the demand for the product (sweets) at school. He arranged to receive the money month-end; that improved the cash-flow and the stock levels. As the cash-flow improved, he bought a bicycle to extend his operations. The bicycle took him three years to pay off. His first shop was a cardboard-box in front of his mother's house in the black township, called "the Location".

Business career

Hauwanga opened his first spares shop in

Ongwediva Ongwediva is a town in the Oshana Region in the north of Namibia. It is the district capital of the Ongwediva electoral constituency. it had 27,000 inhabitants and covered 4,102 hectares of land. Ongwediva has seven churches, two private sch ...

, selling car parts. He grew this business from suppliers 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 20 ...

and

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

and then to the world. He has several operations around the country and has expanded into neighboring

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

. His operations in Angola are property development; he has completed several projects in Angola. Benjamin "BH" has branches of the BH Group of Companies across

with branches in Kavango,

Oshana Oshana is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia, its capital is Oshakati. The towns of Oshakati, Ongwediva and Ondangwa, all situated with this region, form an urban cluster with the second largest population concentration in Namibia after the ...

Omusati Omusati ( ng, Mopane, after the dominant tree in the area) is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia, its capital is Outapi. The towns of Okahao, Oshikuku and Ruacana as well as the self-governed village Tsandi are situated in this region. , Omus ...

Khomas Khomas is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia. Its name refers to the Khomas Highland, a high plateau landscape that dominates this administrative unit. Khomas is centered on the capital city Windhoek and provides for this reason superior trans ...

and

Ohangwena Ohangwena is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia, its capital is Eenhana. Major settlements in the region are the towns Eenhana and Helao Nafidi aa well as the self-governed village of Okongo. , Ohangwena had 150,724 registered voters. Oha ...

. Benjamin Hauwanga joins an elite group of Namibian businessmen in owning a private plane. His Beechcraft 55 Baron aircraft is believed to have cost around N$3 million. He says he bought it to improve the logistical dimensions of his business operations. He bought it from Rami Barnes, a South African entrepreneur. Hauwanga is the owner of the Bennies Entertainment Park and Lodge in

Controversies

In 2008, Hauwanga was involved in a legal saga with another prominent businessman,

Harold Pupkewitz Harold Pupkewitz (14 July 1915 – 27 April 2012) was a Lithuanian born, Namibian entrepreneur and member of the President's Economic Advisory Council. He was the Executive Chairman of Pupkewitz Holdings, a group of builders' merchants, car sal ...

over money that the BH businesses claimed to have lost in non-existent orders and deliveries from Pupkewitz. The dispute arose from payments that BH Motor Spares alleges to have made to Pupkewitz for goods that they had neither ordered nor received. In 2009, BH was also involved in a scandal with the grandson of the former president

Sam Nujoma Samuel Shafiishuna Daniel Nujoma, (; born 12 May 1929) is a Namibian revolutionary, anti-apartheid activist and politician who served three terms as the first President of Namibia, from 1990 to 2005. Nujoma was a founding member and the first ...

. Joseph Nakanyala, grandson of Nujoma, tried to extort Hauwanga by using Nujoma's cell phone in June purporting to be the former president. In SMSs, Nakanyala threatened to kill Hauwanga if he did not give him money. Nakanyala was caught red-handed by the police while stealing a briefcase with money from Nujoma's residence and he later claimed that Hauwanga had sent him. Through thorough investigations it was concluded that Nakanyala made all the stories up in an attempt to extort Hauwanga. Nakanyala withdrew his claims and publicly apologized to Hauwanga through lawyer Sisa Namandje. In a statement signed by Nakanyala, he acknowledged having made these allegations saying: "I had no basis and right at the time of making such allegations to accuse Mr Benjamin Hauwanga. I acknowledge and recognize that the allegations I made have injured the good reputation and name of Mr Hauwanga, and I unconditionally and unreservedly apologize to him , his family, friends and all those who have been affected and inconvenienced by the false allegations I made" the statement reads further. The two shook hands and embraced warmly after Nakanyala finished reading his apology.

Honours

In 2011, Hauwanga received a master's degree in entrepreneurship (''

honoris causa An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...

'') from the

International University of Management The International University of Management (IUM) is a private, state-recognized university based in Windhoek, Namibia. It has campuses in Swakopmund, Walvis Bay, Ongwediva and Nkurenkuru. History The university was founded by David Namwandi i ...

(IUM). He received a Junior Achievement Laureate in Business in 2008.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hauwanga, Benjamin 1951 births Living people People from Tsumeb Ovambo people Namibian businesspeople