In a statement released in Windhoek in August 1983, SWAPO officially announced the names of its elected office-bearers. Pastor Hendrik Witbooi had been elected Vice-President of SWAPO at the movement's enlarged Central Committee meeting in Luanda in April 1983. Daniel Tjongarero was re-elected as Deputy Chairman at a meeting in Namibia in June 1983. Nico Bessinger is SWAPO Secretary for Foreign Affairs inside Namibia.
Pastor Witbooi's great-grandfather fought a drawn-out guerilla war against the German colonial forces in 1892, and later led the Name uprising in 1904. Hendrik Witbooi himself, a pastor in the Methodist Episcopal Church in Gibeon in southern Namibia, has fought a long struggle against South Africa's apartheid politics. In 1976, he was sacked as principal of the local school for leading a strike to get equal pay and better conditions for black teachers. With the help of the parents, he built a new school in Gibeon which, inter alia, teaches Namibian children about their history of resistance to colonialism and provides training in technical and craft skills. Explaining SWAPO's policies and his own position in an interview, Pastor Witbooi said 'It was the policy of my ancestor Hendrik Witbooi at the beginning of this century to try for unity between leaders resisting the colonial power - he learnt it couldn't be done alone. Our struggle for unity is in line with that of our ancestors...'
Daniel Tjongarero has previously been vice-chairman of SWAPO. He spent several periods in detention in 1978 and 1979. He is editor of Information, the news bulletin of the Council of Churches in Namibia.
