CHIEF of the Afrikaner Traditional Authority, /Hoa/Aram //Aixa//Aes, Hendrina Martha Afrikaner, was buried next to her great-grandfather Jan Jonker Afrikaner at Okahandja on Saturday.
She succumbed to serious injuries sustained in a car accident on Friday, August 19 while driving alone between Keetmanshoop and Tses. Messages of condolences streamed in from a host of organisations, local and international, paying tribute to Afrikaner. President Hifikepunye Pohamba said the nation has lost a prominent and revered traditional leader that has made a positive contribution in the lives of her people. ‘She was a patriot taken away too soon,’ was Pohamba’s message to the mourners. Leading the funeral procession, Afrikaner’s anti-apartheid collaborator Bishop Zephania Kameeta described Afrikaner as a humble, fiercely intelligent and witty person. ‘I have observed her steady rise with awe and experienced her eloquent and unique way of doing things; she shone like a diamond,’ said Kameeta. Afrikaner was the first female traditional leader of the Afrikaner clan when she assumed the chieftainship in 2004, a position she held until her death. A new leadership of the Afrikaner Traditional Authority will now have to be elected, with Minister of Regional Government and Housing Jerry Ekandjo urging the authority not to split in two, but to emerge united. The authority is expected to elect a representative to the next council of traditional authorities in Ongwediva in October. Afrikaner’s funeral was attended by all Afrikaner and other traditional authority leaders who have served on the council of traditional leaders, all donning their full traditional regalia. Also in attendance were Ekandjo, Minister of Lands and Resettlement Alpheus !Naruseb, Karas and Hardap governors Clinton Swartbooi and Katrina Hanse-Himarwa, Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Elia Kaiyamo, Deputy Minister of Regional Government and Housing Priscilla Beukes. Alongside Kameeta the funeral was led by Pastor Stephanus Tiboth. Born in 1952, she received her primary education in Hoachanas and later at Augstineum in Okahandja. She worked as a nurse in the 1970s, for the Nama Administration, as well as the Ministries of Education and Gender Equality and Child Welfare after Independence. She obtained a diploma in human resource management. Afrikaner is survived by three children.
