RUNDU - Founding President Sam Nujoma has paid glowing tribute to the late Swapo deputy secretary general and struggle veteran Marco Hausiku.
He described him as a fountain of wisdom and a walking encyclopaedia of the ruling party.
The former deputy prime minister died on 26 August at the age of 66.
“We are consumed with grief as we mourn the passing on, on Heroes’ Day, of one of the fearless and relentless freedom fighters who nurtured the liberation struggle through his personal sacrifices from the early 70s,” Nujoma said in his message of condolences in a statement released by his office on Friday.
“Yet we also celebrate a man of principles who loved being amongst his people because he did not forget his roots and the people he committed to serve when he ascended the ranks to high office.”
Nujoma said Hausiku was indeed one of the pillars of strength of the ruling party. Hausiku has been credited for being a selfless Swapo activist when he hosted political meetings at his Katutura home in the late 1970s.
“He was also instrumental in helping to transport our people to Gobabis through Francistown in Botswana to Lusaka, Zambia,” Nujoma noted.
According to Nujoma, after the Turnhalle Conference quietly dissolved itself on 7 November 1977, only to reappear immediately as a political party, the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA) with the apartheid ‘interim government’ constitution as its programme for an ‘independent’ Namibia, there was increased harassment against Swapo leaders inside the country.
“This is how comrade Hausiku was arrested in 1979 after he was elected as Swapo branch secretary in Windhoek in June 1978 when he finished his studies in South Africa and became a teacher at the then Katutura Secondary School now called Immanuel Shifidi,” he stated.
Nujoma added Hausiku was arrested under the Terrorism Act, AG 26 and AG 9, together with other Swapo leaders inside the country such as Daniel Tjongarero, Martha Ford, Reverend Tjirimuje, Reverend Kauaera, Immanuel Mwatara, Ida Jimmy, Hans Booys, Axel Johannes and Nangolo dha Mukwiilongo, among others.
“Comrade Hausiku was transferred to Windhoek Central Prison from Gobabis and placed under solitary confinement and released under house arrest in 1980, together with other leaders inside the country. Despite intimidations, harassment and arbitrary arrests, they never wavered but remained committed to the liberation of Namibia,” he said.
“It is against this background that comrade Hausiku formed part of the Constituent Assembly and became signatory to our constitution. After independence in 1990, I appointed him as our minister of Lands, Resettlement and Rehabilitation in the first Cabinet of an independent Namibia. Later, he served in various portfolios until he became deputy prime minister from 2010 to 2015.”
Nujoma said Hausiku was a leader who understood the power of collective leadership, of discipline and of forging unity.
“While history will place comrade Hausiku in the pantheon of the luminaries who waged the struggle for Namibia’s independence, he will be remembered by our people for his kindness, his boundless optimism, his humility and humanity. So let us draw guidance and inspiration from his life and let his legacy and his values live on in each one of us,” he said.
- jmuyamba@nepc.com.na