About Namibia

System of government

Birth of the Republic

The road to Namibia’s Independence came through a long and protracted struggle for liberation by the people of Namibia led and organised through SWAPO and supported by the international community. As from April 1989, the United Nations Resolution 435 of 1978 was finally implemented paving the way for the UN-supervised November 1989 elections to create the Constituent Assembly, which in effect decided the legal basis of the Namibian State and its institutional structures.

Constituent Assembly

The Constituent Assembly:

  • Drafted the Constitution of the Republic of Namibia and adopted it on the 9th February 1990;
  • Determined the date of Independence as 21 March 1990;
  • Elected the President, His Excellency Dr. Sam Nujoma, who in turn appointed the first Cabinet.
  • The Chairperson of the Constituent Assembly, Hon. Hage Geingob, was nominated by the President as the Prime Minister.
  • The Constituent Assembly Members and the addition of six non-voting Members nominated by the President, constituted the first National Assembly.
  • The voting Members of the National Assembly elected amongst them Hon. Dr. Mosè P. Tjitendero as the Speaker and Hon. Dr. Zephania Kameeta as the Deputy Speaker.
  • After decades of oppression, war and several years of endless negotiations, Namibians had at last taken control of their country’s destiny and the Republic of Namibia was born on 21 March 1990.

The Constitution

The constitution promulgates a multiparty democracy with fundamental rights and freedoms, a mixed economy and states that foreign investment should be encouraged. It also follows the principle of a separation of powers and subject to checks and balances, whereby government is divided into three branches, the executive, the legislature and the judiciary.