Nahas Gideon Angula (born 22 August 1943)Profile on Namibian parliament website
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 served as the third

Prime Minister of Namibia The prime minister of the Republic of Namibia is the leader of the Government of Namibia. The prime minister is appointed by the President of Namibia and co-ordinates the work of the Cabinet. They also advise and assist the president in the exe ...

from 21 March 2005 to 4 December 2012. He was succeeded by

Hage Geingob Hage Gottfried Geingob (born 3 August 1941) is a Namibian politician, serving as the third president of Namibia since 21 March 2015. Geingob was the first Prime Minister of Namibia from 1990 to 2002, and served as prime minister again from 2012 ...

in a cabinet reshuffle after the 2012 SWAPO Party congress. He subsequently served as

Minister of Defence A defence minister or minister of defence is a Cabinet (government), cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from coun ...

from 2012 to 2015. Angula is a member of the

South West Africa People's Organization 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 ...

(SWAPO). He was Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport from 1990 to 1995 and

Minister of Higher Education {{Unreferenced, date=March 2019, bot=noref (GreenC bot) A Ministry of Higher Education is a government department that focuses on the provision or regulation of institutions of higher education. In some countries these exist as ministries compounde ...

from 1995 to 2005.

Political career

Angula was born in Onyaanya,

Oshikoto Region 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, ...

. He was in exile from Namibia from 1965 to 1989. During this time he worked for Radio Zambia from 1973 to 1976 and for the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

as a civil servant from 1976 to 1980 before becoming a SWAPO organizer in 1980. He was in charge of SWAPO voter registration in 1989. Immediately prior to independence, Angula was a SWAPO 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 ...

, which was in place from November 1989 to March 1990. Angula became a member 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 repre ...

in 1990. He was Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport from 1990 to 1995 and

from 1995 to 2005. Angula received the highest number of votes, 395 (tied with

Jerry Ekandjo Jerry Lukiiko Ekandjo (born 17 March 1947) is a Namibian politician, former anti-apartheid activist and political prisoner. He is one of the founding members of the SWAPO Youth League and has been one of the most active internal leading members o ...

), in the election to the Central Committee of

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 ...

at the party's August 2002 congress. He was one of three candidates who sought SWAPO's nomination as its presidential candidate in May 2004. He placed third in the first round, receiving 137 votes, while

Hifikepunye Pohamba Hifikepunye Lucas Pohamba (born 18 August 1936) is a Namibian politician who served as the second president of Namibia from 21 March 2005 to 21 March 2015. He won the 2004 presidential election overwhelmingly as the candidate of SWAPO, and was ...

received 213 and

Hidipo Hamutenya Hidipo Livius Hamutenya (17 June 1939 – 6 October 2016) was a Namibian politician. A long time leading member of the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO), Hamutenya was a member of the Cabinet of Namibia from independence in 1990 to ...

received 166, and he was therefore excluded from the second round. Those who supported Angula backed Pohamba almost without exception in the second round of voting, and Pohamba was victorious. On March 21, 2005, when Pohamba was sworn in as president of Namibia, he announced that he was appointing Angula as

."Namibia's new president takes office"
AFP, March 22, 2005. After

was re-elected as SWAPO Vice-President on 2 December 2012, and thus confirmed as SWAPO's 2014 presidential candidate, President Pohamba appointed Geingob to replace Angula as Prime Minister on 4 December 2012. Angula was instead appointed as

. Amidst a push for new faces in the National Assembly, Angula opted not to seek a spot on the SWAPO list for the 2014 election.

Education and personal life

Angula received a master's degree in education from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. He is a member of the

Lutheran church Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

, as has been his family for generations.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Angula, Nahas 1943 births Living people People from Oshikoto Region Namibian Lutherans Ovambo people SWAPO politicians Members of the National Assembly (Namibia) Namibian expatriates in Zambia Teachers College, Columbia University alumni Oshigambo High School alumni Defence ministers of Namibia Prime Ministers of Namibia Education ministers of Namibia Youth ministers of Namibia Sports ministers of Namibia Culture ministers of Namibia Columbia University alumni