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National Council appoints new Secretary

National Council appoints new Secretary

Tousy Namiseb has been appointed as the new Secretary to the National Council effective 2 May.

His appointment follows the deployment of former Secretary, Emilia Mkusa as Namibia’s Ambassador to the African Union.

Before joining the National Council, Namiseb was the Deputy Executive Director (Judicial Services) in the Office of the Judiciary, a position he served in since 2016.

His main duties were providing in-house legal counsel, a skill that will prove to be valuable at the National Council in as far as legislative review is concerned. Namiseb’s duties extended to the supervision of the Directorate High and Supreme Court, Directorate Lower Courts as well as Directorate Judicial Commissions Secretariat.

Namiseb, who is an admitted legal practitioner, holds an LLB from the University of Cape Town and an LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa) from the University of Pretoria. Passionate about human rights matters, his Master thesis looked at the protection of children against harmful cultural practices.

Namiseb’s long and illustrious career has seen him serve in the Executive with the Ministry of Justice where he was the Chief of Law Reform, in the Judiciary as Deputy Executive Director, and now in the Legislature as Executive Director of the Upper House of the Namibian Parliament, attaining him to have served in top management positions in all three arms of the State. Namiseb has also been a legal aid counsel and Director in the Office of the Ombudsman, while at the Ministry of Justice. In addition to these achievements, Namiseb has made contributions in the academia as lecturer at the University of Namibia and in the civic society where he was a Candidate Attorney at the Legal Assistance Centre, and Director of the Human Rights Documentation Centre.

His other training and areas of expertise include corporate governance, strategic leadership and orientation, research and analytical skills, mediation, strategic plan based performance management systems, budget formulation as well as NDP5 data coordination.

Over the years, Namiseb also served on various bodies and committees, including the Executive Committee of the Commonwealth Association of Law Reform Agencies, the Magistrate’s Commission, and Cabinet Committee on Legislation (as advisor in attendance). Currently, he sits on the Appeals Tribunal (Communal Land) of the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement. He is further a High Court accredited mediator.

“Whatever you do, do it to serve. I am a servant leader and I always strive to have the work that I do, impact the lives of those who are in need of the services. Without such impact, direct or indirect, personal or professional, what we do becomes futile. I will work with dedication and lead with a servant culture to enhance professionalism and excellence in everything we do. With me, it is not about going the extra yard, but the extra mile in enhancing democracy and human rights, issues that I am passionate about and will steer to achieve,” he said upon his appointment.

Meanwhile the National Council welcomed Namiseb into its fold and wishes to congratulate him on his new appointment. “We assure him of our support and cooperation in taking the National Council to new heights,” they said.


 

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.