Ngatjizeko retires

Unconfirmed reports indicate that the recently appointed presidential affairs minister Immanuel Ngatjizeko, who has not been in the best of health over the past few years, has retired.
Ngatjizeko, the former trade minister in President Hage Geingob’s Cabinet, was moved to his new position earlier this month, as part of a wide-ranging reshuffle.
The seasoned political veteran was a Swapo organiser from 1978 and served on the former liberation movement’s internal national executive committee before independence, after which he was elected to the Swapo Central Committee in 1991, and to the politburo in 2007.
He has been a parliamentarian since 2000, and a member of Cabinet since 2003, when he was appointed as director-general of the national planning commission.
From 2000 to 2005 he served as deputy mines minister, before being appointed first as trade minister and then as labour minister between 2005 and 2010.
From 2010 to 2015 he initially served as labour minister until 2012, before being appointed as safety minister.
In Geingob’s administration, Ngatjizeko was appointed as trade minister in March 2015, before being moved about two weeks ago into his new post.
At the time, Geingob said he had brought the ailing minister to State House, so he can look after him.
STAFF REPORTER