Cabinet has extended the moratorium on all state and official funerals until March next year, pending a comprehensive review of the criteria and processes followed when granting such state-sponsored funerals to various individuals. At its 11th meeting on Tuesday, Cabinet approved for the moratorium to officially run from 16 June until 31 March 2026.
A new seven-member review committee will also be established to come up with the terms of reference and proposals on how state and official funerals should be granted going forward.
The committee will consist of members from the Office of the Prime Minister, the Presidency, the defence ministry and the Office of the Attorney General.
During the 2024/2025 financial year alone, Namibian taxpayers forked out a whopping N$38.4 million to cater for 16 state funerals, which also included those of president Hage Geingob and Founding President Sam Nujoma.
Geingob, Namibia’s third president, died on 4 February 2024, aged 83, shortly after undergoing cancer treatment in the United States, and a period of national mourning was observed from 5 to 25 February, culminating in his state funeral at the Heroes’ Acre in Windhoek.
Meanwhile, Nujoma died a year later, on 8 February 2025 at the age of 95, and his memorial service was held at Independence Stadium, followed by a state funeral on 1 March 2025 at the Heroes’ Acre.
His casket was also flown to several regions, where memorial services were held.
In 2021, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the government was forced to spend an unbudgeted N$6.1 million on state and official funerals conferred on 52 Namibians who had succumbed to the deadly virus. During the 2021 fiscal year, the government had allocated just over N$1 million for state and official funerals but ended up spending N$448 591 on two designated heroes’ burials, while another 11 state funerals cost an additional N$2.75 million between May and July 2021 alone.
Another N$2.86 million was spent on 39 state-funded funerals between July 2020 and July 2021, mostly because of the Covid-19 pandemic that wreaked havoc countrywide.
In Namibia, the conferment of national honours, including state and official funerals, is primarily governed by the Conferment of National Honours Act of 2012. On average, each state funeral is estimated to cost the government N$889 473.
Nujoma
Cabinet also resolved at this week’s meeting that 12 May be commemorated as Nujoma Day and National Tree Planting Day annually.
The day, which coincides with the birthday of Namibia’s late revolutionary Founding President Sam Nujoma, will honour Nujoma’s lifelong commitment and love for planting trees and restoring nature for future generations through planting of new trees countrywide.