Teopolina Mushelenga (born 11 December 1957 in Omagola-

Oshigambo Oshigambo is a settlement in the Oshikoto Region of northern Namibia. It is situated on the banks of Oshigambo River east of the Etosha pan The Etosha Pan is a large endorheic salt pan, forming part of the Cuvelai-Etosha Basin in the north o ...

Oshikoto Region Oshikoto is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia, named after Lake Otjikoto. Its capital is Omuthiya. Further major settlements in the region are Tsumeb, Otjikoto's capital until 2008, and Oniipa. , Oshikoto had 112,170 registered voters. Ge ...

) is a

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

n politician. A member of SWAPO, she was first elected to the

National Assembly of Namibia The National Assembly is the lower chamber of Namibia's bicameral Parliament. Its laws must be approved by the National Council, the upper house. Since 2014, it has a total of 104 members. 96 members are directly elected through a system of cl ...

in the 1999 elections, and was subsequently reelected in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

. After the election of

Hifikepunye Pohamba Hifikepunye Lucas Pohamba (born 18 August 1935) is a Namibian politician who served as the second president of Namibia from 21 March 2005 to 21 March 2015. He won the 2004 Namibian presidential election, 2004 presidential election overwhelming ...

that year, she was appointed deputy minister for home affairs and immigration. Prior to the 2009 general election, Mushelenga was placed 59th on SWAPO's

electoral list An electoral list is a grouping of candidates for election, usually found in proportional or mixed electoral systems, but also in some plurality electoral systems. An electoral list can be registered by a political party (a party list) or can c ...

of 72 candidates for the National Assembly. The top 54 SWAPO candidates on the list were elected, leaving her out of the National Assembly.

Career

Mushelenga began her career as a teacher at Oluno Junior Secondary School in

Ondangwa Ondangwa (earlier spelling ''Ondangua'') is a town in the Oshana Region of northern Namibia, bordering the Oshikoto Region. It had a population of 30,364 people in 2023. Ondangwa was first established as a mission station of the Finnish Missi ...

, then taught at

Ovamboland Ovamboland, also referred to as Owamboland, was a Bantustan and later a non-geographic ethnic-based second-tier authority, the Representative Authority of the Ovambos, in South West Africa (present-day Namibia). The apartheid government stat ...

in 1980. In 1983, she joined SWAPO and subsequently went into exile in

Kwanza Sul Cuanza Sul Province ("South Cuanza"; Umbundu: Kwanza Kombuelo Volupale) is a province of Angola. It has an area of and a population of 1,881,873. Sumbe is the capital of the province. Dom founded the province in 1769 as Novo Redondo ("New Re ...

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

, where she taught at the SWAPO Education Centre until 1986. In 1990, on the independence of Namibia, she returned to Oluno School in Ondangwa, where she stayed until she entered politics in 1992.

Politics

Mushelenga was elected to the town council of Ondangwa in 1992 and stayed in that position until 2000. She was chosen as mayor of Ondangwa in 1992–1995 and 1998–2000. From 2000 to 2010 she was a member of the National Assembly.

Committees served on

Mushelenga was selected to be part of the sub-committee of the National Assembly which was created to look into allegations that only

Herero Herero may refer to: * Herero people, a people belonging to the Bantu group, with about 240,000 members alive today * Herero language, a language of the Bantu family (Niger-Congo group) * Herero and Nama genocide * Herero chat, a species of bird ...

-speaking Namibians had been chosen to fill high-level posts during that time.

References

1957 births Living people Politicians from Oshikoto Region Politicians from Oshana Region Mayors of places in Namibia Members of the National Assembly (Namibia) Namibian expatriates in Angola SWAPO politicians Namibian exiles 20th-century Namibian women politicians 20th-century Namibian politicians 21st-century Namibian women politicians 21st-century Namibian politicians Women members of the National Assembly (Namibia) {{Namibia-mayor-stub