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Four-part book series zooms in on political, socio-economic spectrum of South West Africa to Namibia transformation

Four-part book series zooms in on political, socio-economic spectrum of South West Africa to Namibia transformation

An exclusive new book series, ‘South West Africa to Namibia’ became available in local bookshops  this week.

The book series consists of four books, with the first book, SWA na Namibië – ‘n Politieke Bosoorlog, written by the late Kosie Pretorius of Monitor Action Group,  published in September 2014.

The other three are all written by Dr Ben van Zijl,  respectively titled SWA to Namibia-Prelude to Independence, SWA to Namibia-White Contenders and SWA to Namibia-Successes of Independence.

The series covers the political and socio-economic spectrum of the transformation from South West Africa to Namibia, reaching as far back as 1884 when South West Africa was placed under German control, until 2019, the year of the 7th National Elections in Namibia.

Pretorius’ book, ‘n Politieke Bosoorlog, focuses on two people, Pik Botha, then South African Minister of Foreign Affairs and Dirk Mudge, former Chairman of the DTA. Van Zijl’s Prelude to Independence describes the origins, history and policies of the political parties that took part in the first parliamentary and national elections in 1989, also covering various policies that directly promoted the independence of Namibia.

Van Zijl’s White Contenders can be typified as an exploratory descriptive case study of the two most prominent white political parties in South West Africa/Namibia before independence, namely the National Party of South West Africa (NPSWA) and the Republican Party of South West Africa/Namibia (RP).

In  Successes of Independence, Van Zijl strives to determine the popularity of the various political parties over a period of 25 years. The results of all 6 presidential and national elections between 1989 and 2014 were monitored and studied and the findings of this research can be used to project or determine the outcome of future national elections, according to the author.

Dr van Zijl held positions (inter alia) as Superintendent: Television Programmes and Actuality at the former SWABC, Head: Interstate Relations, Head: SWA/Namibia Information Service, Head: Liaison Service and Managing Director of PdeV Advertising (Namibia).


 

About The Author

Mandisa Rasmeni

Mandisa Rasmeni has worked as reporter at the Economist for the past five years, first on the entertainment beat but now focussing more on community, social and health reporting. She is a born writer and she believes education is the greatest equalizer. She received her degree in Journalism at the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) in June 2021. . She is the epitome of perseverance, having started as the newspaper's receptionist in 2013.