The former chief pilot of Ethiopian Airlines, who flew the flight that brought Founding President Sam Nujoma back to Namibia in 1989, commended President Nangolo Mbumba for a befitting send-off accorded to the late leader.

Captain Tensae Berhanu, who was in Windhoek to attend the state funeral of Nujoma, paid a courtesy call on President Mbumba at State House on Saturday.

Berhanu applauded the proceedings of the state funeral, which was organised for a leader he described as courageous.

Berhanu's 1989 flight to Namibia was one of the two he made during that crucial year. He shared that in June of the same year, he flew a contingent of peacekeepers and landed at Grootfontein, in the Otjozondjupa Region.