Botswana to celebrate Geingob’s life

The government of Botswana will host a two-day memorial service in honour of former president Hage Geingob.

The event is planned for 13 and 14 March (tomorrow and Thursday) in Gaborone, where a documentary called ‘The Geingob Footprint and Legacy’ will be screened.

President Nangolo Mbumba is expected to deliver a tribute.

Botswana’s president, Mokgweetsi Masisi, and Geingob shared a cordial friendship.

Meanwhile, Zambian president Hakainde Hichilema has honoured his promise of naming Kasama and Shantumbu roads in Lusaka after Namibia’s late president, Hage Geingob and founding president Sam Nujoma.

Hichilema announced this intention during Geingob’s memorial service in Windhoek on 25 February.

Lusaka mayor Chilando Chitangala, in an exclusive interview with Crown TV Zambia a day later, expressed support for the president’s announcement.

She said the president’s decision aligns with Lusaka’s city council’s legal mandate to name streets and roads within the city.

“The decision was consistent with a resolution passed unanimously by the full council, and followed by a consultative meeting with councillors, where the naming proposal was discussed and agreed upon,” Chitangala said.

She highlighted the close ties between the two countries , noting that Geingob lived in Lusaka for 17 years and considered it his second home, while Nujoma spent many years in Lusaka and has been honoured as a ‘free man of the city’.

Chitangala said Kasama and Shantumbu roads are informal names which have not been formalised in the Lusaka City Council’s road registry, which is why the gesture cannot be considered as renaming, but rather naming.

The roads will formally and legally be known as Dr Hage Geingob Road and Dr Sam Nujoma Road.

“I am a beneficiary of the introductory programme he led,” Hichilema said at Geingob’s memorial service.

“The year I took office, I had to attend the Southern African Development Community troika, and he was the chairperson . . . He continued to always provide leadership at that platform,” he said.

“We acknowledge his remarkable leadership and true statesmanship,” Hichilema said.