Staff Reporter
Windhoek-Founding president Sam Nujoma will this Saturday donate the Etunda Clinic – built from pledges made on his birthday over the years – to government.
Nujoma, who led the struggle for Namibia’s independence for some 30 years, turns 88 tomorrow. He retired as Swapo Party president in 2007, having vacated the Namibian presidency two years earlier – in 2005.
He has since maintained a low profile, steering clear of both government and party issues. Over the years, his birthdays have been celebrated at his farm Etunda near Otavi, where pledges in various forms were made in his honour.
The former president channels most of these donations towards various welfare initiatives, such as scholarships, through his Sam Nujoma Foundation, as well as building a clinic and a primary school, still under development.
The clinic has now been completed and will be handed over to government on Saturday, through the Ministry of Health. Nujoma’s special assistant, Kashindi Ausiku, confirmed that the clinic would be donated to government at Etunda this weekend. “It will be his gift to government on his birthday,” Ausiku said.
Nujoma, a revered liberation struggle icon of his generation, was born on May 12, 1929 at Etunda, a village in the Ongandjera area of Omusati Region. He served as Namibian president for 15 years, between 1990 and 2005.