Gentle giant falls

Former Prime Minister and Swapo veteran, Dr Theo-Ben Gurirab, has been described as a doyen of Namibian diplomacy, as tributes continue to pour in after his passing on Saturday.

The 80-year-old former National Assembly speaker, who was born on 23 January 1938 in Usakos, had sacrificed his life in pursuit of his country's liberation and subsequent establishment as one of the youngest democracies in the world.

President Hage Geingob, who together with Gurirab and the late Hidipo Hamutenya made up the so-called Swapo trio, confirmed Gurirab's passing on Saturday.

He described him as a friend, a comrade and a giant of Namibia's liberation struggle.

He said the exceptional work Gurirab had delivered in the service of Swapo and the Namibian nation shall forever be cherished.

“A rich chapter is closing, without the country's first foreign minister and one of the leading architects of Namibia's diplomacy,” Geingob said.

Tuliameni Kalomoh, a Namibian diplomat who serves as a special advisor on foreign affairs to Geingob, Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila and international relations minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah said the Namibian nation had lost a true friend.











“The first thing we as a country have lost is a friend. We are all mourning, but we are grateful to have had him as our leader during a sacred time in the history of the struggle for independence. We feel sorry for the bereaved family, for his death,” he said.

Kalomoh emphasised the country and its people needs those of Gurirab's quality as leaders.

“Gurirab had foresight and could predict what would happen and therefore was able to conceptualise and pre-empt the strategies of the enemies of the independence struggle,” he said

According to him, Gurirab, as a leader, had special talents and skills, which came naturally.

“His contribution while negotiating for the implementation of Resolution 435 is unquantified. He had a very sharp intellect, which enabled him to counter effectively the machinations of the Western Contact Group. Therefore, his ideals will never die, but will generate fruit all across the young generations of Namibian diplomats. His legacy will remain immortal,” Kalomoh said.

Swapo politburo member Tobie Aupindi said Gurirab's life had always been about commitment, dedication and giving.

“His life and sacrifices should remind us of the work that still needs to be done in order for Namibia to realise its developmental objectives. He stood unwavering through the test of time, to see that freedom and justice was achieved,” Aupindi said.

Many observers pointed out that Gurirab's story is inexplicably interwoven with that of Swapo.

Gurirab graduated with a teaching diploma from Augustineum Training College in Okahandja in 1960.

His political career began in 1962, when he fled from his homeland to Tanzania.

He remained in political exile for 27 years. Upon being awarded a United Nations fellowship in 1963, he proceeded to study in the United States and was in 1964 appointed as one of Swapo's troika of associate representatives to the UN and the Americas, while pursuing his education.

He studied at Temple University in Pennsylvania, where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 1969 and a Master of Arts degree in international relations in 1971.

Gurirab, a seasoned diplomat and negotiator, served for 14 years as Swapo's chief representative to the UN, and later as its permanent observer. He served from 1986 to 1990 as the liberation movement's foreign affairs secretary and throughout these years played a major part in negotiations leading to Namibia's independence.

During Gurirab's stewardship of over 14 years as Swapo's top diplomat at the UN, from 1972 to 1986, the liberation movement's political and diplomatic status grew from that of a petitioner on the sidelines of diplomacy in the 1960s to a mainstream negotiator and participant in the international arena. The protracted negotiations that produced UN Security Council Resolution 435 in 1978, containing an internationally accepted plan to bring independence to Namibia, represented a high point of his political and diplomatic career.

He was one of the first Swapo leaders to return home in 1989, to help organise the pre-independence elections. He was also one of the leading Swapo negotiators of the ceasefire agreement, signed in March 1989, between South Africa's apartheid regime and Swapo, which set the pace for elections in Namibia and its transition to independence.

Elected in 1989 to Namibia's Constituent Assembly, Gurirab was a key drafter of the country's constitution. That assembly became the country's first National Assembly in 1990. He was appointed as the country's first foreign affairs minister after independence by Founding President, Sam Nujoma.

As one of the major achievements in this portfolio, Gurirab led three years of negotiations over Walvis Bay, which resulted in 1994 in the reintegration of the port and offshore islands into Namibia.

This was in fulfilment of Security Council Resolution 432 of 1978 that Walvis Bay is an integral part of the country.

Gurirab holds the title of Dean of African Foreign Ministers. In over 35 years in the field of international diplomacy, he has known and worked with three generations of world leaders and five secretaries-general of the United Nations. He was in September 1999 elected as the 68th president of the UN General Assembly.

Gurirab is survived by his wife Joan and two sons, Dantagob and Hanganee.



FRED GOEIEMAN