Africa-Press – Namibia. THE multimillion-dollar, 52-kilometre Namalubi-Isize-Luhonono road in the Kabbe North constituency was renamed after the late liberation struggle hero Brendan Simbwaye on Monday.
The road, which has been fully funded by the government at a cost of N$740 million, was inaugurated by president Hage Geingob last month, and is the first of its kind, linking the mainland to the flood belt.
The late Simbwaye was born in 1934 at Malindi village in the Zambezi region. Zambezi regional governor Lawrence Sampofu during the renaming ceremony described Simbwaye as a liberation icon.
“Today’s event signifies that Namibia will by no means forget the people who contributed to the liberation struggle of the independence we enjoy now,” he said.
According to Sampofu, Simbwaye in 1963 resigned from his teaching job to concentrate on political activism, adding that losing his income did not distract him from rising up against the colonial government.
He said Simbwaye played a major role in the birth and evolution of the Caprivi African National Union (Canu) and its merger with Swapo. Simbwaye returned to the Caprivi (now the Zambezi region) at the end of March 1964, and was arrested in July as he was about to address the first Canu/Swapo rally at Mafulo village near Katima Mulilo.
He was charged for leaving the country illegally, and for organising a public meeting without the permission of the colonial authorities. “He was sentenced to three months in jail at the Windhoek Central Prison. After his release, he was banned from re-entering the Caprivi without the approval of the South African minister responsible for Bantu administration and development,” Sampofu said.
However, in 1972, Simbwaye was allowed to visit the Caprivi, but his life and promising career was cut short in the same year when he disappeared without a trace. Sampofu said this was why the road should be renamed after Simbwaye.
A Simbwaye family representative, Michael Munyaza, pleaded with the government to erect a ceremonial tombstone at Simbwaye’s home village, and thanked the government for the honour they have bestowed on him by renaming the road after him.
“Indeed, this renaming ceremony also displays the government’s ambition to foster and bring development to the people where it is needed,” he said.
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