“Vice president Witbooi to meet traditional leaders for Remembrance Day talks
By Namibia Press Agency
21 April 2025
Vice president Lucia Witbooi will be engaging traditional leaders of various communities this week for Genocide Remembrance Day slated for 28 May.
Former president Nangolo Mbumba on 28 May last year declared 28 May as Genocide Remembrance Day with effect from 2025.
The day was also declared a public holiday to allow Namibians, especially the affected communities of Ovaherero, Nama and San people, to pay homage to their forefathers who were killed between 1904 and 1908 by the German colonial forces.
A statement indicates that Witbooi will kick off her visit in the //Kharas and Hardap regions on Tuesday, 22 April, accompanied by chief Dawid Gertze, Charles Eiseb and Timotheus Tiboth.
[…]
On the same day, Witbooi’s envoy, including former National Assembly speaker Peter Katjavivi, assisted by Michael Tjivikua, Moses !Omeb and Ueriuka Tjikuua, will visit the Otjozondjupa region to meet with traditional leaders there.
Kunene governor Vipuakuje Muharukua will also join the vice president’s envoy supported by John Kasaona and Naledi /Uiras to meet traditional leaders at Khorixas.
On Wednesday, Witbooi will be at Gobabis in the Omaheke region, where she will be in the company of Freddy Nguvauva and Willem Abuse as her supporting staff.
[…]
Each traditional leader is requested to be accompanied by two councillors or advisors, and is also urged to contact the vice president’s supporting staff as per their respective regions.
Former member of parliament Usutuaije Maamberua in 2016 tabled a motion for a genocide remembrance day. His reason at the time was that it was on this day that the commander of the colonial German Schutztruppe ordered the formal closure of all Ovaherero and Nama concentration camps in then German South West Africa, now known as Namibia since independence in 1990.
[…].”
- Full report “Vice president Witbooi to meet traditional leaders for Remembrance Day talks” on the website of the Namibian (last checked in April 2025)
- See background article “1908 May 28 – Concentration camps officially dissolved” in the ‘Namibia’s Past’ section of this website
- See also report “Government seals 28 May as Genocide Day” by the Namibian of 28 May 2024
- See also reports on the debate about the date for Genocide Remembrance Day:
“Declaring genocide remembrance holiday an election ploy – opposition” (Namibian, 29 May 2024),
“OvaHerero Genocide Foundation rejects Genocide Remembrance Day” (Windhoek Observer, 29 May 2024),
“Finally, a Public Day to Memorialise Our Genocide Victims” (Namibian – Opinion, 9 June 2024),
“Ovaherero reject 28 May as Genocide Remembrance Day” (Namibian Sun, 10 October 2024)