Like Nelson Mandela, Andimba Toivo Ya Toivo was a political prisoner in the fight against South African apartheid. In the early 1950s he helped create an organization to assist Ovambo workers in South African mines and in 1965 participated in the foundation of the Organization of the Ovambo People, the forerunner of the South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO) which led the struggle for the independence of Namibia.

Despite serving 16 years in a South African prison, Toivo Ya Toivo refused to be released if the rest of his fellow Namibian political prisoners were not freed. Prison authorities had to literally force him out of the facility.

After Namibia’s independence in 1990, he was elected to Parliament and later to the post of Energy and Mines Minister. In 1999 he became the Labor Minister and is now Namibia’s Minister of Prisons.

Andimba Toivo Ya Toivo recently told the press that Namibian diplomas had been awarded to the Cuban Five three of them for their service in the struggle for Angolan independence, and all five for their fight against terrorism.

The Namibian minister stressed that he and the Cuba-Namibia Friendship Association will continue to demand that the Cuban Five be freed from their US prisons.