Chamber of Mines, NSA get new top brass

Two of Namibia's prominent public institutions have announced senior leadership appointments, both effective 1 May 2026.

Shaanika takes the helm at Chamber of Mines

The Chamber of Mines of Namibia has appointed Fabian Shaanika as CEO. Shaanika is a registered professional geologist with nearly two decades of experience across the full mining value chain, including exploration, project development, financing and production. He brings additional investment banking experience spanning mining, petroleum and renewable energy.

His most recent role was MD of Kelp Blue, where he led the scaling of Namibian operations to full commercial capacity. Prior to that, he served as Mining and Resources Sector Lead at Rand Merchant Bank Namibia and Head of Business Banking at Standard Bank Namibia. His earlier career includes senior technical and strategic roles at Namdeb, Vedanta's Skorpion Zinc Mine and Debmarine Namibia. He holds an MBA from the University of Stellenbosch Business School and has completed executive education at Imperial College Business School and London Business School.

Shaanika succeeds Veston Malango, who retires after 20 years of service to the Chamber and the Namibian mining industry. Malango will remain in a transitional capacity until the end of 2026.

Tjizake steps into statistics leadership role

The Namibia Statistics Agency, meanwhile, has appointed Israel Tjizake as deputy statistician-general. Tjizake is a trained demographer and statistician with over 25 years of postgraduate professional experience spanning government, the United Nations and academia. His expertise covers demography, official statistics, results-based policy development, programme design, and the planning and management of large-scale surveys and population censuses.

He holds a Master's degree in Population Studies and Human Resources, a Bachelor of Science with majors in Mathematics, Statistics and Economics, and holds professional certifications in Results-Based Management, Project Management and Geographic Information Systems. In his new role, Tjizake will support the Statistician-General in overseeing the agency's core statistical operations and advancing the modernisation of Namibia's statistical systems.

He succeeds Ottilie Mwazi, who retired on 31 March 2026.