Liberation pioneer dies

Shipanga, while a member of the Swapo leadership in exile in Zambia supported newly arrived young members who questioned “undemocratic tendencies” in Swapo and the misuse of donor funding by the leadership of the party.

“I was one of the people who talked about corruption in Swapo,” he related in the October 2011 interview.He was then the Swapo secretary for information and publicity.Another issue that irked the Swapo leadership, including party president Sam Nujoma, was Shipanga and his group’s insistence on a congress, where a new leadership for the party could be elected.This brought the group on a collision course with the leadership and Shipanga and many people identified as part of his group were arrested by the Zambian authorities on 21 April 1976. They were arrested with the assistance of the Zambian army and transported to an army camp called Oshatotwa in Zambia where they were detained without trial.He spent the next two years in military prisons in Zambia and Tanzania. When his wife, a British citizen, lodged a case against Shipanga’s detention without trial, Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda helped to transfer the group to Tanzania, where they were moved from one prison to the other. Shipanga was isolated from the rest of his group and held incommunicado for 10 months. This period, dubbed in Swapo lore, the Shipanga Rebellion, heralded the end of Shipanga’s association with the organisation he helped establish.Tanzania released them on 25 May 1978 on condition that they leave the African continent and go to any other country.Shipanga sought political asylum in Britain – the home country of his wife.JOURNEY OUT OF NAMIBIAHis quest to further his education, and the dream of freedom from the colonial yoke was what took him across the Namibian border to Angola. In 1955, together with his two friends, Nikodemus and Matheus Ntinda, he decided to leave for Sweden through Lobito in Angola. Their plan was to get a job on a ship in Lobito and try and reach Liberia from where they would either go to Sweden or America.But, their stay in Angola was short-lived as the working conditions there were harsh and unbearable.They decided to trek on foot south from Angola, a trip that took them two weeks to reach the Namibian border in today’s Kavango Region. Now they were heading for South Africa to go and work there in the underground gold mines.Their way to Johannesburg was not a difficult one and on arrival in South Africa, they were issued with work permits (passes) and got jobs. But, as they were still young, the underground work was too physical, Shipanga quit the job.Shipanga decided to head north to Southern Rhodesia, where he met another Namibian, Philip Imene, who facilitated for him a work permit and a job at a wire factory.As the working conditions there were favourable , he invited the Ntinda brothers to join him – which they did.START OF HIS POLITICAL CAREERWhile in Southern Rhodesia, Shipanga and his friends read about Toivo ya Toivo and Fillemon Mifima in Cape Town, who wanted to form a political party for Namibians.The ever-restless Shipanga and his two friends decided to move to Cape Town to join up with those Namibians.They reached Cape Town in 1957 where they met ya Toivo and others to form the Ovamboland People’s Organisation (OPO).Shipanga said in October last year that they used Timotheus Enkali’s barbershop in Somerset Street 35 in Cape Town as their office. “This is the place where OPO was born.”He told The Namibian that the OPO leadership included individuals like Fanuel Kozonguizi and Emil Apollus.When Ya Toivo was banished from Cape Town to the former Ovamboland because of his political activities in 1958 and Solomon Mifima left for Tanganyika in 1959, Shipanga was placed in charge of OPO. Those in the leadership under Shipanga were Polly Kaukungwa, Patrick Hishongwa, Matheus Shatipamba, Elias Shingenge, Ottilie and Dr Kenneth Abrahams, Nora Schimming-Chase, Peter Kauluma and many others.Shipanga left Cape Town and returned to Namibia in early 1960’s where he joined Ya Toivo to spread the liberation gospel.He left the country in 1963 together with the Abrahams couple, Hermanus Beukes and Paul Smith for Botswana.While in exile Shipanga set up Swapo representative offices in a number of African countries, including Congo and Cairo. In the October interview, Shipanga also credited himself with setting up three military training camps for Swapo fighters in Congo, Ghana and Egypt. “Those who established the military camp at Omugulugwombashe were trained at the Cairo Guerrilla Camp,” Shipanga related.Asked about the future of Namibia, Shipanga said that he is sorry but the very same “corrupt” Swapo leadership, who imprisoned him in Zambia and Tanzania are still in charge and that he does not see hope for Namibia. “They will be sidelining those who speak out against corruption, as they did with us in Swapo in exile. I am just calling on Namibians who have the interest of their people at heart not to tire, but to continue fighting corruption, nepotism and tribalism in Namibia.”RETURNING TO NAMIBIAShipanga prematurely returned to Namibia in 1978, before his mission to liberate was completed. On his return he launched his party Swapo Democrats, known by its acronym as Swapo D, which he formed in Sweden in the same year. He participated in the South African inspired Transitional Government of National Unity, where he served in various capacities, including Minister of Mines and Energy, Nature Conservation and Tourism and also as Commerce and Industry.It was as the Minister of Mines and Energy, he pushed for the development of the Kudu Gas Project, Shipanga told The Namibian in October last year.Shipanga said, he also had an issue with Namibian diamonds being exported and polished outside the country.Shipanga and his Swapo D participated in the independence elections in 1989, but performed dismally and did not win a seat. He said the party’s poor performance was because of his participation in the interim government. He disbanded Swapo D in May 1991 and turned his back on active politics.Shipanga was a trained teacher and completed his Teacher Train Certificate in 1952 at Ongwediva.

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