Namibian President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah and President Cyril Ramaphosa witness the signing of seven agreements during the 4th session of the SA-Namibia B-National Commission held on July 17 in Pretoria.
Kim Heller
"Namibia is not merely our neighbour. Namibia is our sister nation," President Cyril Ramaphosa affirmed at the Fourth South Africa–Namibia Bi-National Commission (BNC), held in Pretoria last week. South Africa and Namibia share a history shaped by struggle, sacrifice and solidarity.
In 1967, Namibian liberation leader Andimba Toivo ya Toivo and thirty-six other Namibian activists were charged with terrorism in an apartheid South African court. Their "crime" was resisting South Africa's illegal occupation of Namibia and demanding their country's right to self-determination.
Standing in the dock, Toivo defended the rights of the Namibian people to govern themselves and determine their own future. He was sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment. He spent sixteen years on Robben Island alongside Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki and other ANC leaders, forging bonds of solidarity that no prison walls could break.
