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Herald Reporter
Namibian liberation icon, Cde Herman Andimba Toivo ya Toivo, was on Saturday laid to rest at the country’s Heroes’ Acre.

The 92-year-old died two weeks ago at his home in Windhoek, leaving behind his wife Vicki, two daughters and three sons.

A zanu-pf delegation comprising of Central Committee member Cde Webster Shamu and his wife Constance and deputy speaker of Senate Cde Chen Chimutengwende attended the burial.

Cde Toivo ya Toivo was a Namibian anti-apartheid activist, politician and political prisoner who was active in the pre-independence movement.

He is one of the co-founders of the South West African People’s Organisation (SWAPO) in 1960, and its predecessor the Ovamboland People’s Organisation (OPO) in 1959. Having grown up in northern Namibia, Cde Toivo ya Toivo spent some time in Cape Town in the 1950s where he joined the African National Congress (ANC) and became one of the early petitioners to the United Nations, advocating for the independence of Namibia. He was tried in 1966 under the Terrorism Act, and sentenced to 20 years in prison due to his political activism and served 16 years on Robben Island in the same section as the late South African President Nelson Mandela.

Upon his release in 1984, he rejoined SWAPO in exile in Lusaka, Zambia before returning to Namibia in 1989 in the wake of the country’s independence and served as a Member of Parliament and as a Cabinet Minister in Sam Nujoma’s government.

He retired from active politics in 2006.