Liberation icon with an unfinished legacy – LPM pays tribute to Sam Nujoma

Landless People’s Movement (LPM) spokesperson Lifalaza Simataa says founding president Sam Nujoma will be remembered in history as a freedom fighter.

Nujoma died in Windhoek on Saturday.

In a statement released on Sunday, Lifalaza said the founding president played a role in the liberation of Namibia, and
is therefore on the long list of heroes and heroines who fought for Namibia’s freedom.

“He shall forever be in the history books among great names, such as the likes of Toivo ya Toivo, Emil Apollus, Mishake Muyongo, Peter Nanyemba and Hendrik Witbooi,” he says.

Lifalaza says the LPM wishes Nujoma’s family, Swapo, and the Namibian people in general strength.

Meanwhile, the LPM Youth Command has described Nujoma as a militant revolutionary whose commitment to independence was indisputable.

LPM Youth Command spokesperson William Minnie says Nujoma’s death marks not only the loss of a towering figure in Namibia’s history, but also the closing of a chapter that defined Namibians’ political consciousness.

“Dr Sam Nujoma was not a leader of mere words, he was a militant revolutionary, forged in the fire of struggle, unyielding in his defiance of colonial subjugation. His courage and commitment to the liberation of this nation are indisputable.

“He did not ask for permission to fight, he demanded justice, and he waged that battle with uncompromising conviction. His legacy as the father of the nation is one that will endure beyond our lifetime,” he says.

Minnie says the story of Namibia’s liberation, however, remains incomplete.

“We honour Dr Sam Nujoma, not with empty eulogies, but with a sober recognition that the political independence he fought for has not yet translated into true economic freedom for the masses.

“The promise of land, dignity, and self-sufficiency remains unfulfilled for the very people whose blood watered the tree of liberation. The system that Dr Sam Nujoma helped dismantle was not entirely replaced, it was merely reconfigured, leaving many Namibians trapped in cycles of economic dispossession and social injustice,” he says.