The future is female

Tunohole MungobaBorn and raised in Tsumeb, the second year Economics student at the institution has always been motivated to achieve great things as her family is very supportive. “I come from a family of achievers. It is a norm to achieve great things,” she says. Shilongo describes herself as “a fighter, confident, loveable and approachable.” In 2015, Shilongo and her friend Rejoyce Towe decided to enter for Miss First Year and to their surprise, they both walked away from the competition with titles. She continued to also win the competition of the first Miss NUST. “Winning the pageants has opened so many doors for me and it has given me a beautiful platform of getting to know people on another level and getting to meet people that I can definitely associate myself with in the new future,” she says. However, Shilongo says she is not a model, but she is grateful for all the opportunities. “That is why I like to emphasize that you do not know what you are capable of unless you try.” She also added that beauty pageants are not superficial events and disagrees with those that share those views. “Girls who enter beauty pageants need to have the ability to tackle social problems that are being faced in society so you need to have brains.” Shilongo was inspired to run for these leadership positions because she wants to be the voice of her students. “I want my students to come to me with problems as little as toilet paper and as big as not being able to write exams. I want to channel that voice to management,” she tells The Zone. She aspires to be a transparent leader and an honest leader as well. She also added that growing up, she was not a leader, but more of a follower. “I was never someone that took the initiative and now I am that person. I decided to find it within me to be a positive and hard worker.” What does she plan on achieving?“As much as I am a fighter, I need to be realistic fighter. So I will first need to see what kind of obstacles I will be facing,” she says when asked about her plans during her term. She has a number of goals including providing free condoms and sanitary wear in bathrooms, make her institution more wheel-chair friendly, building a taxi rank for the students to reduce robberies and introducing the selling of alcohol during events like the Cultural Festival. “It is important that we accommodate all our students including those that drink. Many of our students tend to take their money to Unam’s Cultural Festival because of what we do not offer. I would prefer my students to spend money at our institutions rather so we that we can use that money to build other recreational facilities for our school.”Shilongo plans on juggling her newly elected position with her school by changing her studies to part time next year. “Being president is a very demanding position and everything will fall back on me. I decided to be at office during the day and attend my classes part time. I have decided to put my education first while serving my students, because at the end of the day, I am a student as well.”As a female in male-dominated field, Shilongo believes that women “are just as fit to take leadership positions.” Shilongo believes that it is not about gender, but about the person ability’s to take up the position. Fast Facts about Marvellous Shilongo · Favourite food: Traditional food and anything that has a lot of cheese on it · Favourite song: Sista Bettina· Favourite hangout spot in Windhoek: I go out a lot but my room is definitely my favourite hangout spot.· Motto I live by: “Hard work beats talent and nothing comes easy”· One Namibian person I look up to: I can’t choose, but definitely my mother Dina Shilongo, Sidney Martin and his wife Patty Karuaihe Martin.· Super power I would choose: To think of any destination and magically appear there as I love traveling.· Last book I read: the Bible· Winter or summer?: Definitely summer

The future is female

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Namibian Sun 2026-05-14

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The future is female

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Namibian Sun 2026-05-14

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