Ngarikutuke Tjiriange

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Ngarikutuke Ernest Tjiriange (born July 12, 1943[1][2]) is a Namibian politician, a member of the National Assembly and former Secretary General of the ruling South-West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO). He is currently Minister of Veterans' Affairs.

Tjiriange was born in Windhoek.[1][2] He studied law at Leningrad State University and received a doctorate from Kiev University in 1973. After researching at the International Institute for Labour Studies in Switzerland in 1974 and the International Institute for Human Rights in France in 1975, he was an assistant professor at the United Nations Institute for Namibia in Lusaka and then in Zambia from 1977 to 1982.

He became the principal legal advisor of SWAPO in 1970.[1][2]

Tjiriange was a SWAPO member of the Constituent Assembly, which was in place from November 1989 to March 1990, immediately prior to independence.[3] At independence in 1990, he became a member of the National Assembly.[1]

He became Minister of Justice in 1990, serving in that post for thirteen years; he was additionally Attorney-General from March 2000 to January 2001. He was nominated as Secretary-General of SWAPO by President Sam Nujoma at the party's August 2002 congress, and he was elected to that post. It was decided at the congress to make the position of Secretary-General a full-time job,[2] but Tjiriange remained Justice Minister until May 8, 2003, at which point he was instead appointed Minister without Portfolio.[4] In the November 2004 parliamentary election, he was first on SWAPO's candidate list. He resigned from the National Assembly, as well as from his post as Minister without Portfolio, in February 2005 in order to receive payment of a pension;[5] however, he was reappointed as Minister without Portfolio by the newly sworn in President Hifikepunye Pohamba on March 21, 2005.[6] The opposition Congress of Democrats was critical of this, saying that Tjiriange would effectively receive a salary out of taxpayer money for doing party work as SWAPO Secretary-General.[7] On October 4, 2006, he was appointed by Pohamba as Minister of Veterans' Affairs upon the creation of that ministry.[8]

At SWAPO's November 2007 congress, Tjiriange failed to be re-elected to the party's Politburo.[9] On January 27, 2008, he was elected as SWAPO's Secretary for Environment at a meeting of the Central Committee.[10]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d Profile at Namibian Parliament website.
  2. ^ a b c d Profile at Namibian Institute for Democracy website (French).
  3. ^ List of members of the Constituent Assembly, parliament.gov.na.
  4. ^ Christof Maletsky, "Kuugongelwa new Finance Minister", The Namibian, May 9, 2003.
  5. ^ "MPs quit 'for the money'", The Namibian, February 18, 2005.
  6. ^ Christof Maletsky, "New ministries and new faces", The Namibian, March 22, 2005.
  7. ^ "Pohamba fails to impress the CoD", The Namibian, April 22, 2005.
  8. ^ Brigitte Weidlich, "War vets get own Ministry", The Namibian, October 5, 2006.
  9. ^ Christof Maletsky, "Swapo big names dropped", The Namibian, December 3, 2007.
  10. ^ Christof Maletsky, "Surprise changes in Swapo", The Namibian, January 29, 2008.
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