{"id":101407,"date":"2026-04-26T13:32:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T13:32:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/kuugongelwa-amadhila-honors-tjitenderos-leadership-legacy"},"modified":"2026-04-26T14:08:56","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T14:08:56","slug":"kuugongelwa-amadhila-honors-tjitenderos-leadership-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/kuugongelwa-amadhila-honors-tjitenderos-leadership-legacy","title":{"rendered":"Kuugongelwa-Amadhila Honors Tjitendero&#8217;s Leadership Legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Namibia. <\/strong><\/span><b>National Assembly speaker Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila has paid tribute to founding speaker Mose\u0301 Tjitendero, describing him as a principled leader who presided over parliamentary debates without fear or favour.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Kuugongelwa-Amadhila made these remarks on Sunday during the marking of Tjitendero\u2019s 20th death anniversary at Heroes\u2019 Acre in Windhoek.<\/p>\n<p>She said Tjitendero\u2019s central achievement as the first speaker of the National Assembly was establishing the impartiality of the chair as a democratic norm that transcended party affiliation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the National Assembly, where political diversity was real and sometimes sharp, Dr Tjitendero presided without fear or favour,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>She noted that his leadership helped build the early credibility of parliament as an institution belonging to all Namibians, while asserting its autonomy as a state organ with oversight over the executive.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHis actions in this regard were not incidental,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p>Kuugongelwa-Amadhila also reflected on her early days as finance minister, recalling a moment when she and Tjitendero clashed during proceedings of a parliamentary standing committee report.<\/p>\n<p>She said Tjitendero firmly refused to allow her to debate the contents of the report on the floor of the House.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe tradition was that the report is either rejected or adopted. You cannot argue its contents and seek to amend it during debate,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was very strong about something in the report. So, now I was insisting on taking the chair and he was firm not to allow me continue with the argument saying, \u2018minister, you either support the report or you object.\u2019 After two attempts to change the content, I objected,\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n<p>She added that during Tjitendero\u2019s 14-year tenure, from 1990 to 2004, the legislative record of the National Assembly was substantial.<\/p>\n<p>Among the key moments of that period, she remembered debates around the Married Persons Equality Act of 1996, noting that some Swapo members brought bibles to parliament to argue against equal rights in marriage, citing beliefs that men should remain heads of households.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHis tenure also saw the repeal of various native laws which were racially discriminatory and at variance with our Constitution,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Tjitendero, a former Swapo central committee member, served as speaker from 1990 until 2004.<\/p>\n<p>He died in April 2006 at the age of 63.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Namibia<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Namibia. National Assembly speaker Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila has paid tribute to founding speaker Mose\u0301 Tjitendero, describing him as a principled leader who presided over parliamentary debates without fear or favour. Kuugongelwa-Amadhila made these remarks on Sunday during the marking of Tjitendero\u2019s 20th death anniversary at Heroes\u2019 Acre in Windhoek. She said Tjitendero\u2019s central achievement [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":101406,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,12],"tags":[233],"class_list":["post-101407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-policy","tag-namibia"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Kuugongelwa-Amadhila Honors Tjitendero&#039;s Leadership Legacy - Namibia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"National Assembly speaker Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila has paid tribute to founding speaker Mose\u0301 Tjitendero, describin ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/kuugongelwa-amadhila-honors-tjitenderos-leadership-legacy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kuugongelwa-Amadhila Honors Tjitendero&#039;s Leadership Legacy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"National Assembly speaker Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila has paid tribute to founding speaker Mose\u0301 Tjitendero, describin ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/kuugongelwa-amadhila-honors-tjitenderos-leadership-legacy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Namibia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-26T13:32:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-26T14:08:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2026\/04\/sm_1777199738.011387.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/kuugongelwa-amadhila-honors-tjitenderos-leadership-legacy#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/kuugongelwa-amadhila-honors-tjitenderos-leadership-legacy\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Kuugongelwa-Amadhila Honors Tjitendero&#8217;s Leadership Legacy\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-26T13:32:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-26T14:08:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/kuugongelwa-amadhila-honors-tjitenderos-leadership-legacy\"},\"wordCount\":384,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/kuugongelwa-amadhila-honors-tjitenderos-leadership-legacy#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2026\/04\/sm_1777199738.011387.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"namibia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/kuugongelwa-amadhila-honors-tjitenderos-leadership-legacy#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/kuugongelwa-amadhila-honors-tjitenderos-leadership-legacy\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/kuugongelwa-amadhila-honors-tjitenderos-leadership-legacy\",\"name\":\"Kuugongelwa-Amadhila Honors Tjitendero's Leadership Legacy - 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