Shipanga a complete leader: Matjila

FORMER comrades and colleagues described Andreas Shipanga, who died yesterday morning at Uuhehe village near Iihongo in the Ondonga Traditional District of the Oshikoto Region as a frightfully intelligent and independent man and a man of principles which put him on a collision course with the Swapo leadership in exile.

Shipanga was found dead at his house at his home at Uuhehe village after presumably having had a heart attack. “I was paralysed with shock,” commented long-time friend, Andrew Matjila. “I loved Shipanga. He was one of the upright people whose mind could not be changed easily. He was a strong character, a complete leader. He was very principled.” Matjila said despite whatever detractors might say, Shipanga was whole-heartedly committed to Namibia’s independence. “The Shipanga I knew was very committed to Namibia’s liberation,” emphasised Matjila, adding that Shipanga’s fall-out with Swapo before he got detained after the so-called ‘Shipanga rebellion’, his imprisonment until May 1978, and early return to Namibia when he formed the Swapo Democrats, was because he had insisted upon a congress where a new leadership could be elected within Swapo. “That is where he went wrong,” said Matjila. Otillie Abrahams, who had worked with Shipanga in Cape Town during the formation of the Ovambo People’s Party (OPO) in the 1950’s and subsequently after the formation of Swapo in the 1960’s, said Shipanga was “extremely clever” and a “good underground worker who knew how to deal with the South African apartheid forces”. DTA president Kaatiture Kaura described Shipanga as a very friendly person, an unassuming human being who did not think he was better than others.“He was very committed to the Namibian liberation, but of course, in any freedom struggle there are breakaways from the original party. It is a shame that he has died as a very lonely person. May his soul rest in peace,” said Kaura.See obituary of Shipanga on page 7.

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