By Staff Reporter WINDHOEK FORMER Parliamentarian and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Kaire Mbuende has been offered a professorship at the renowned Witwatersrand University in South Africa. Mbuende confirmed the offer this week but said he needed to clear certain issues and declined to provide details about his planned move into academia. Should this work out, he would relocate to Johannesburg. He holds a PhD in Economic Sociology from Lund University, Sweden, and a BA (hons) Economic History and Sociology from the same university. Mbuende became the first Deputy Minister of Agriculture in 1990. In 2002, he was appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, taking over from Tuliameni Kalomoh after a stint with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) where he was its Executive Secretary. Mbuende, a Swapo Central Committee member was fired as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs together with his senior Minister Hidipo Hamutenya in 2004, just before the decisive Swapo Congress. At the time, Hamutenya was one of the three candidates vying for nomination as the Swapo candidate for the country’s presidency. Mbuende is a close associate of Hamutenya. Mbuende is also involved in business. He is one of the shareholders and Chairperson of Aqua Utilities Corporation, a company that specialises in turning water problems into solutions.