award ceremony to honour game wardens and environmental staff for their work in the ministry. The overall winner was Jan Tsumib, a San member of the Haikom tribe. The Haikom lived in the Etosha area for centuries until around 1953, when the South African apartheid government forced them off their ancestral land. Only a few Haikom managed to get a job at the then nature conservation department, which became the ministry of environment and tourism after independence.
Jan Tsumib was born in 1946 in Etosha and worked for over 30 years in Etosha looking after wildlife, dealing with problem animals and protecting the endangered black rhinos. He later became a great mentor for younger game wardens, who could learn a great deal from his vast experience. It was a proud moment for Tsumib at the beginning of this month, when he won the Live Achievement Award. Other nominees were Rudi Loutit and Trygve Cooper. Gabriel Shatumbu won the Springbok Award for his work to monitor poaching. He is based in Etosha and is the first black Namibian who obtained a bird-ringing licence. Matambo Singwangwa won the ministry’s Welwitschia Award for his anti-poaching and conservation work in the Mudumu national park of the Caprivi Region. Photo: PLUS