13 Mar 2024

“What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us, what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal,” American author, Albert Pike once said.

The latter part of the quote resonates with eulogies of the late Namibian president, Dr Hage Geingob during a memorial service in Gaborone yesterday.

According to speakers at the memorial service, Dr Geingob, whom they described him as an advocate of unity, left for the region, a trove of good deeds that will ensure his legacy lives on.

One of the speakers, former secretary general’s special representative for the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea, Mr Joseph Legwaila said Botswana would also continue to mourn Dr Geingob.

“It is only right to do so, to demonstrate our abiding solidarity with the Namibian people. Our two countries’ existential ordeals have always been shared across our long border,” he said. Mr Legwaila said Botswana and Namibia’s friendship predated independence as the former was instrumental in frustrating apartheid South Africa from making Namibia its province.

He also said the two countries were tied in many aspects such as culture, history and geography. One of Dr Geingob’s longtime friend, Ms Julia Mathumo said he was still ‘too young to have gone’, and urged Botswana to keep his legacy by continuing its friendship with Namibia. She said she first met him in the United States as he was a close friend to her mother.

“My mother spoke Afrikaans and so she related well with him and he became a family friend. I got close with him because we were in the same class, but we parted ways later only, to meet again when he came to congratulate me when I graduated,” she said.

She said she knew Dr Geingob as a humble and gentle giant whom she could lean on as her own younger brother. “He was well connected and was a member of various committees in the United Nations,” she said.

Ms Mathumo therefore urged the two countries to continue in the footsteps of Dr Geingob and strive for unity between them as a way of ensuring that his legacy lived on. “We have lost him but let us not lose the ideals he set such as women empowerment, unity of the region and encouraging shared resources. It looks like we are likely to have a first woman president in the Republic of Namibia and such are his ideals that we should keep alive,” she said.

United Nations Coordinator in Botswana, Mr Zia Choudhury assured that the organisation would continue with its good working relations with Namibia as was the case during the late Dr Geingob’s tenure.

He said he first met Dr Geingob in Scotland, where through his narration of events, he got a glimpse of what injustice was, especially on issues of depravation of education, freedom and land.

For his part, the Minister for State President, Mr Kabo Morwaeng said while Botswana was saddened by Dr Geingob’s passing, it was also important to celebrate his tenure and remarkable deeds. He said Dr Geingob worked tirelessly to achieve the best for his people and for the SADC region.

“To us in Botswana, this marks the celebration of a relationship that subsists in our country and Namibia, a connection that he cherished and guarded jealously and ensured it grew from strength to strength,” he said.

Mr Morwaeng said it was, therefore, necessary to draw wisdom and inspiration by remembering his leadership achievements and continue the maintenance of peace and good relations between the two countries.

African Union Chairperson, Mr Moussa Faki Mahamat through a video message said Dr Geingob’s larger than life character touched not only his native Namibia and Botswana but the whole region and continent.

 He said Dr Geingob spent the better part of his life fighting for the freedom of his people and that of the region.

“He was an advocate for transparency and unity, and he was a brilliant administrator who has left for his county, an efficient public service that remained the pride of the country even today,” he said.

Mr Mahamat also described Dr Geingob as a man who gave equal opportunity to all through his vision of a shared prosperity for his country. “He had a deep commitment to social and economic development for all, especially the disadvantaged and the elderly,” he said.  ends