Namibian President Hage Geingob died early Sunday at a hospital in Windhoek, according to his administration. He was 82.
Geingob, who was serving his second term as president and his country’s first prime minister following independence, announced last month that he was being treated for cancer.
Most recently, he supported South Africa’s Genocide Convention suit against Israel and condemned Germany, Namibia’s former colonial master, for rejecting the case.
“It is with great sadness and regret that I inform you that our beloved Dr. Hage G. Geingob, President of the Republic of Namibia, passed away today,” said a statement signed by interim President Nangolo Mbumba.
“At his side, was his dear wife Madame Monica Geingos and his children.”
A biopsy after a normal medical check-up in January discovered “cancerous cells,” Geingob’s office stated at the time.
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa said: “Today, South Africa joins the people of our sister state Namibia in mourning the death of a leader, patriot, and South African friend.
“President Geingob was a towering veteran of Namibia’s independence from colonialism and apartheid. He also had a significant impact on the solidarity that Namibians provided to South Africans, which allowed us to be free today.”
President William Ruto of Kenya reiterated this appreciation.
“He was a believer of a unified Africa and strongly promoted the continent’s voice and visibility at the global arena,” he went on to say.
Geingob was Namibia’s longest-serving prime minister and third president, having been elected in 2014.
Geingob underwent brain surgery in 2013 and an aortic operation in neighboring South Africa last year.
He had been having treatment at Lady Pohamba Hospital in Windhoek prior to his death.
“The Namibian nation has lost a distinguished servant of the people, a liberation struggle icon, the chief architect of our constitution and the pillar of the Namibian house,” Mbumba, the president of Namibia, stated.
“At this moment of deepest sorrow, I appeal to the nation to remain calm and collected while the government attends to all necessary state arrangements, preparations and other protocols.”
He said that the cabinet will meet immediately to make the required state arrangements.
Independence struggle
Geingob, born in a settlement in northern Namibia in 1941, was the southern African country’s first president who was not from the Ovambo ethnic group, which accounts for more than half of the population.
In his early years, he became an activist against South Africa’s apartheid state, which dominated Namibia at the time, and in 1964, he was nominated as the SWAPO liberation movement’s United Nations representative.
He spent over 30 years in Botswana and the United States before returning to Namibia in 1989 to manage SWAPO’s election campaign in his newly independent country.
Namibia plans to hold presidential and national parliament elections toward the end of the year.