Thread: In Memoriam: Kalla Gertze

The sudden death of Congress of Democrats (CoD) MP, Reinhard (Kalla) Gertze, in the early hours of yesterday morning has stunned the nation. Our thoughts and prayers are with his loved ones.

Kala Gertze, a founding member of the Congress of Democrats (CoD), served as the party’s Secretary General from 2004 to 2007. He was replaced by Rosa Namises at the party’s contentious congress at Keetmanshoop in May 2007. In March 2005 he entered the National Assembly (NA) after appearing at number five on the CoD candidates list.

Gertze left Namibia to join Swapo in exile in 1978 and went on to study at the UN Institute for Namibia (Unin) in Lusaka. After completing military training at Lubango he was arrested by Swapo in 1983 and tortured until he falsely confessed to being a South African spy. He was detained for six years. On his release from detention and return from exile in 1989, Gertze joined the Namibia Patriotic Front and was briefly the alliance’s Secretary General.

In 1995 he became the founding Secretary of Breaking the Wall of Silence, a group that campaigns on behalf of former Swapo detainees. Since independence, Gertze has spent over five years studying in France. Before joining parliament, he was in charge of French teaching at the University of Namibia (Unam).

Source of Biography: NID - Namibia Institute For Democracy