The Minister of Environment, Forestry, and Tourism has described the late President Hage Geingob as a person you could learn from every day, especially on administration matters.

Shifeta says he vividly recalls when he met the late President Geingob in 1989 at a social function in Windhoek. 

He says that although at first, he saw the late as a strict, serious, and unapproachable man, his initial thoughts were actually proven wrong when he got to know him and became a personal friend.

"I thought I was going to accept it by this time, but it still feels like it's a dream. It's somebody we can narrate as a person who likes friends, a person who wants to be surrounded by friends all the time. When they used to call us Hage boys, we were young boys in the 90s because he did not have many friends among his peers; mostly it was us young people who were his friends."

The late President, he says, was a person that you get to learn something from every day, not only at work but also from his personal life, adding that when he gives you a directive, he will also provide you with guidance on how to go about it. 

"He is a good administrator, and he mentored some of us to be administrators. I learned a lot from him in terms of administration. Before independence, the apartheid administration was not as organised as we have it now because he likes order in administration because he is a constitutional man and what it says must be done."

Shifeta also got to know Dr. Geingob as an individual with a generous heart.

Shifeta says he will not remember him as a president or prime minister but as an icon and a family man who interacted with everyone. 

Shifeta says his last moments with the late were really sad for him, and he will always cherish them.