Zedekia Ngavirue


Dr Zedekia Josef Ngavirue is a Namibian academic and long-serving Namibian ambassador to the European Union as well as to Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

Education and Career

Ngavirue was educated at Augustineum Secondary School, Waterberg and Stofberg. He served as a diplomat for Namibia. He received a B.Phil. degree from the Uppsala University in Sweden and a Doctor of Philosophy from Oxford University in the United Kingdom. He was a member of SWAPO and later SWANU. He created The South West News a newspaper in English, Afrikaans, Otjiherero and Oshiwambo, and the first editors was him and Emil Appolus who later played a prominent role in the South West African National Union.
Ngavirue left Namibia in 1960, serving as a lecturer at the University of Papua New Guinea between 1972 and 1978 before returning to his native country in 1981. He worked in various managerial positions at the Rössing uranium mine from 1983 1989.
Following Namibia's independence, Ngavirue was Director General of the National Planning Commission from 1990 to 1995. He was the Namibian Ambassafor to the EU and Belgium in Brussels between 1995 and 2003.
Ngavirue is the Namibian government's special envoy to lead deliberations with his German counterpart, Ruprecht Polenz, on matters relating to 1904 – 1908 Herero and Namaqua genocide, he is spearheading discussions with the German government on the 1904-1908 genocide appointed by President Hage Geingob.