RUNDU - The Namibian Defence Force (NDF) military base in Rundu was on Thursday renamed after the late People’s Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN) fighter, Voito Jason Kondjeleni, who died in 1983.
PLAN was the military wing of Swapo when it was still a liberation movement fighting to liberate the then occupied Namibia.
The renaming event was attended by friends and family members of the late Kondjeleni and members of the NDF at the renamed base.
Speaking at the event, Major Kefas Mateus, from Voito Jason Kondjeleni Military Base told family and friends the NDF military high command instructed them to rename the base after Kondjeleni.
“The highest office in our ministry asked us to rename the base after our fallen hero, veteran in order to remember him,” he said.
Kondjeleni was born on 29 November 1951 at Kakuro village just west of Nkurenkuru in Kavango west and in 1962 his family moved to Rupeho village in the Mpungu in the renamed Kavango West.
It was at Kakuro where he started his school career and he later moved to Nkurenkuru to further his education. Later in 1970 he moved to Rundu where he attended Rundu Secondary School and completed his standard 8 in 1972.
According to Kondjeleni’s biography read by Major Mateus, Kondjeleni joined Swapo in Angola two years after he finished his standard 8 and he went to Angola through Porto Kwangali were he joined PLAN at Kasapa Training Centre and after his training he was deployed to the eastern front battle area till 1980.
In 1981, together with the present Minister of Regional and Local Government, Retired Major-General Charles Namoloh, they were sent to Russia for military training at a military academy.
“Kondjeleni, together with Rtd Major-General Namoloh, after going to the military academy for a year in Russia, they returned to Angola in January 1982. Kondjeleni was then appointed as a political commissar,” Mateus reminisced at the event. In 1983 Kondjeleni later lead a group to come to Kavango region as a group commander and he passed away on August 1983 at Nepara, south of Nkurenkuru.
Speaking at the same event, Eila Frieda Nsinano, the late Kondjeleni’s elder sister who spoke on behalf of the family said the family is thankful for the Ministry of Defence’s decision to rename the Rundu military base after her late younger brother.
“We are very grateful to get this opportunity as we didn’t dream about it, we thought our hero was forgotten, but now we see he will always be remembered” Nsinano said, adding this meant a lot for them.
The family, however, still does not know where their loved one was buried and they appealed to government to enlighten them so that they could know where his body is resting so as to put closure to the issue.
“We don’t know where he was buried up till now, we don’t know where they buried him after he was killed, our humble request is that we want you to work hard to find were the one we are honouring today was buried, where is he?” queried Nsinano.
Voito Jason Kondjeleni left behind three children at the time of his death during the country’s liberation struggle.
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