Andimba Toivo Ya Toivo: 1924 – 2017

Namibia has lost a gallant son in Herman Andimba Toivo Ya Toivo. Born on 22 August 1924 in northern Namibia, Ya Toivo went on to become an icon of the anti-apartheid struggle and a towering giant of note. Ya Toivo’s life has been full of trials and tribulations, but throughout he has shown his undying determination to fight for the dignity and freedom of his people. He was a revolutionary and a true hero of conscience. He attended vocational training at Ongwediva between 1939 and 1942. He also attended school at Odibo’s St. Mary’s Mission School where he completed Standard 6. He stayed on until 1950, graduating as a teacher, and he successfully operated a store at Ondangwa. Ya Toivo taught at St Cuthberth's School at Onamutayi and St. Mary's Odibo before travelling to South Africa for further studies in 1951. He was employed as a railway worker in Cape Town where he also became a member of the African National Congress in 1957. Ya Toivo was one of the co-founders of Swapo and its predecessor the Ovamboland People’s Organisation (OPO) in 1959. He served 16 years at Robben Island in the same section as the late South African apartheid icon Nelson Mandela. Ya Toivo was held in solitary confinement in Pretoria for more than a year before the sentence. According to Wikipedia, Ya Toivo was released in 1984 and rejoined his Swapo comrades in exile in Lusaka, Zambia. In Lusaka, he became a member of the Swapo central committee and politburo and was elected secretary-general thereafter. After independence he served as minister of mines and energy under Founding President Sam Nujoma. He later became minister of labour in 1999 and was moved to the ministry of prisons in 2002 where he served until retirement from active politics in 2006.

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