WINDHOEK- The Damara King`s Council is mourning the death of Senior Headman Johannes Isaak Hendricks (74), of the Aodaman Traditional Authority, who died at a hospital in Otjiwarongo on March 01.
Hendricks who served as senior headman under Aodaman Traditional Authority Chief Petrus Ukongo for 49 years will be buried at Fransfontein in the Kunene Region on Saturday.
Yesterday, Damara King`s Council Secretary General, Abner Axel Xoagub described his death as a “devastating loss” for the council.
“For the past 19 years, he served as senior headman for Aodaman Traditional Authority. He was the treasurer for the Damara Representative Authority from 1980 to 1989. He was a delegate to Lusaka, Zambia pre – independence talks, chaired by the former President Kenneth Kaunda,” he said.
“He had war veteran status; he also obtained a diploma in agriculture from the Arabise College in South Africa. He played a very critical role in the agricultural and environmental reform in central and western Namibia,” he added.
Politically, Xoagub said Chief Hendricks was a member of the Namibia National Front (NNF) and the United Democratic Front (UDF).
“He was a business man, father, grandfather and great grandfather,” he added.
Chief Hendricks is survived by one elder sister and one elder brother, twenty (20) biological children, seventy seven (77) grandchildren and fifty nine (59) great grandchildren.